Disease
by redfeatherz
Summary: Max and the flock defeated Itex. Or so they thought... And this time their plan won't fail. The only one who can help them is another mutant, who they can't trust... rated T, HEED THE WARNING!
1. Chapter 1

((kk, so here's how it goes- Max and the gang have just destroyed Itex. Or that's what they think. A small branch survived. One building. They're launching the backup plan. Forget capturing the flock, just eliminate them. And there's no stopping this plan, unless they can gain the trust of a new mysterious girl…))


	2. Chapter 2

((this first chapter might be a bit confusing, and short, but plz just work with me… it'll all make sense soon enough. And here's the disclaimer, and I mean it for the rest of the story too- I don't own Maximum Ride, as much as I'd like to. I do own Sam, and other characters I might create, though.))

**Sam**

I struggled through the underbrush, letting out a stream of foul words as I went. I hate walking, but I don't really want to fly this close to an airport. I shivered as I heard the roar of one taking off. This is _my _sky, not theirs. If humans were meant to fly, they would have wings like me.

Yes, I said wings. If you don't like it, than just leave now. For those of you who are staying, I'll continue. I'm genetically enhanced. A secret lab made me what I am, and although they performed illegal tests on me and made my life a living heck, I'm thanking them every time I stretch my wings, every time I snap a kick, every time I use my Talents. I call my powers Talents, cause superpowers sound lame and nerdy. I go for sporty and smart. Anyways, I'm tearing up the bushes, saying words that would make your grandmother have a stroke, and I suddenly stopped. I heard the sound of whispering. Quickly, I used my most useful Talent, and crept over to where I heard it. When I stepped into the small clearing, I heard one of them whisper, "someone's here." I furrowed my brow and slipped silently into the air, beating my wings with no sound. There was no way that anyone could know that I was there. Unless they had a Talent that let them see people who were invisible.

**Iggy**

We just left the plane from Germany, and had escaped the crowds in the woods. "Okay, guys, we beat Itex, and Max saved the world. What next?" Gazzy asked. Max hesitated, then said, "We destroy the school, and make sure that Itex really _is_ destroyed. Then we find a nice place to settle down, like our old house." I grinned, remembering the place. I walked over to where I heard Nudge drop the wood she had already collected on the way there, and cleared away all of the brush and such. I carefully lit it, then turned back to everyone else. "Cool. So where do we start?" I asked, standing beside Angel. Then, I felt her tense, and heard a slight crackling. "Someone's here," I whispered, and Angel nodded, her hair brushing my arm. We all tensed, ready for whatever. Then, as soon as I heard the sound, it disappeared. Angel whispered, "Can you still hear her? Cause I lost her thoughts. I only got a split second of them in the first place, then it was suddenly gone." I knew that there was almost no way someone could sneak up on us like that, with Angel's mind reading and my hearing. "She was right near us, too, but I didn't see her." She paused, and I heard slight panic creep into her voice. "Do you think there are such things as ghosts?" She asked.


	3. Chapter 3

((I know, I'm going really fast, but I want to get this started. Disclaimer- see 1st chapter.))

**Random Whitecoat at the last bit of Itex**

I handled the vial carefully, feeling nervous. They were only 98 sure that it wouldn't affect humans, and would only affect the flock. It was our newest work, called 'The Disease,' and would kill the flock. A higher scientist nodded at me, and I nodded back. Taking a deep breath, I pulled the top off, letting the mosquitoes escape. Sure, the flock could handle erasers, and robots, and various other experiments, but they wouldn't be able to handle the bugs. Or bug.

**Sam**

I hovered around them, watching and listening carefully. The little one, they called her Angel, whispered something about ghosts, and I almost cracked up. Instead, I settled for a smirk, and continued to watch as they banked the fire and took off. I had figured that they were mutants from when I first saw them. The wing bumps on their backs gave it all away, and only someone with wings themselves would notice them. They weren't very fast, compared to another Talent I had of going up to 300 mph. Once, I even made a small sonic boom. I tailed them easily, flying silently as they picked up the pace to about 90 mph.

After about three hours of uneventful flying, and learning only their names, Nudge asked something about food. I grinned, feeling the credit card in my pocket. I had stolen it from the lab where I was made, called 'The Home', and it was hooked up to an illegal money machine that they had created. So it had no limit of money, and was also rigged to be untraceable. We landed, ate at a fast food restaraunt, and slept in the trees. I slept on the moss below them, as far away as I could, but still within view. I switched to visible, and fell asleep quickly.

I continued like that for about three days, when something odd happened. By then, I had gathered that they all had wings, thought that they had destroyed Itex, ((I'll break off a bit here- you all know their story. Sam found out about their powers, and most of the stuff about them.)). Anyways, the odd thing was that Max seemed a bit out of sorts. She was constantly zoning out, and seemed exaughsted, even though they had slept well the last few days. That night, she sat, curled up against a tree on watch, and waited for everyone to get to sleep. As soon as they were, she crawled into the bushes and threw up, then crawled back, passing out against the tree. I wondered what was wrong, and I snuck over, invisible, and touched her forehead. It almost burned me, and I winced. So the remains of Itex had carried through. And the flock will die if I don't help them. Just then, Iggy, sprang to his feet. "Guys!" he shouted, and everyone else leapt up. Weirdly enough, I wasn't worried. I stood up and became visible, the flock's faces showing surprise, all except for Iggy and Fang. I spread my fingers with my middle and index on one side and my ring and pinkie on the other, and said, "I come in peace if you do." I snickered, and they stared blankly at me. Suddenly, I saw Fang's neck muscles clench, then realized what he was doing just before he did it.


	4. Chapter 4

**Sam**

He jumped at me, and I leaned backwards just enough so that his fist would sail over my face harmlessly and smash into the tree. He winced, and I took that moment to start up on the speed. Running around him at 300 mph, I was pretty much a blur of color. He lashed out, trying to hit me, but I grabbed his arm and spun him around. He couldn't stop, so I spun him at 300 mph for a few more seconds, then kicked the backs of his knees. He fell to the ground, looking dazed and slightly green, and instantly tried to get back up. He fell over again, and I laughed. "Nice try Fang. But ya gotta wake up pretty early to pull one over ol' Sam." I turned to the rest of the flock. "So. Anyone else gonna try to attack me? 'Cause I'm here to help." Fang tried to stand again, growling, "What the f did you do to Max?" I rolled my eyes. "I didn't do anything, dimwit. Itex did it." I raised my eyebrows at them when they looked confused. "You didn't destroy the whole thing. There's one building left. And this is their last plan. To kill you. They spread a disease that only mutants can catch, and it kills them slowly, first seeming like a simple stomach flu, then inclining to death within a week. I can't get it because they immunized me to it, and you can only get it once. Now can I help Max before it gets worse?" I asked. Without waiting for an answer, I turned back to her.

I touched my fingers to her forehead again, wincing at the heat. Her eyes moved sightlessly under their lids, and her fingers twitched. I took a deep breath, readying myself for what I was about to do. I had only done it a few times, and it took a great deal of energy. My other Talent was control over heat. Fire, warm things, the works. I took another deep breath and closed my eyes, then began removing the heat from her body. The only other thing I could do with it was to take it inside myself, and I started to sweat as my temperature rose. The rest of the flock seemed frozen, wondering what was going on. I breathed deep and heavily, almost panting. Finally, her temperature seemed normal, and I collapsed against the tree, not passed out but weak from energy loss. I let out a pitiful groan involuntarily, and closed my eyes again.

**Max**

I woke up to a groan, and realized that it had come from someone other than me. I didn't feel hot anymore. On the contrary, I felt pretty cool. I sat up and looked around, and my eyes widened at the sight. Fang was sitting on the ground, looking slightly cross-eyed, and everyone else was standing still. Gazzy was whispering what was going on to Iggy, and Angel was staring at the tree beside me, her eyebrows wrinkled in concentration. I looked up, and saw a girl about my age, with light brown hair that had a reddish tinge to it. She seemed normal, except her eyes were closed, and she was breathing shakily. I stared in shock at her, then at Fang. She was unimaginably beautiful, and I felt jealous for a moment, wondering what Fang was thinking. "Who's she?" I asked, still feeling slightly sick, a bit of a twist in my stomach, feeling a little drained. Fang looked up at me, his eyes struggling to focus. "She said she was Sam, and she was here to help you." He took a deep breath and explained exactly what happened.


	5. Chapter 5

((sry about the no double spacing- I just looked at it and its hardish to read. And I forgot a MAJOR detail- Sam's wings were like bat wings, with a little claw/thumb thing on the end, and red streaks at the bottom, like rips. Sort of. Ish. Kinda. And plz just post a review, don't e-mail me. My inbox is overflowing :/))

**Angel**

I stood silently, trying to read the new girl's mind. Why wasn't I getting any thoughts from her? I could still get them from everyone else. Fang was thinking about how darned hot she had looked when she took him down, and was worried about her. Max was jelous of the new girl's beauty, Iggy was frustrated, trying to get Gazzy to explain everything, and Nudge was daydreaming about the girl. All I could get from her was her name, but I think she already said that it was Sam. I peeked into Max's mind again, and shuddered at the feeling of sickness in her. Sam hadn't cured her all the way, but it was a lot better than how she was before. I thought for a second, calculating things, and I realized that it would take about four days to get her back to normal. Turning back to Sam, I struggled again, trying to get in. This time I got a little bit, but it was very hard. It wasn't even a thought, just a feeling. A love of chaos, destruction, pain, havoc. She followed no rules, and did what she wanted when. She never listened to others unless she was feeling like it, and she was clearly enjoying the confusion she was causing. Even in her weakened state, she was pure evil.

**Fang**

I finally finished explaining the whole scene to Max, and stood up, still feeling woozy. I was totally mad at myself for getting beaten that bad, that fast. And god, she was fast. I couldn't believe that she was that quick. Must be another ability, like the invisibility thing. Whatever. I glanced at her again, and even sweaty, with a twig stuck in her hair, and grass stains on her knees, she was beautiful. Black baggy cargo pants, Avril Lavenge straight hair, dark, big eyes, dark red tight t-shirt with some band's name on it, corded arms, and cunning mind. She was everything I ever dreamed of. Max was pretty, but this girl was drop-dead hot. She had apparently been altered from the bird genes so that she had no chest, ((not gonna go into detail here, sorry guys, but I'm a girl, loyal to her kind)) but I didn't care. I felt dizzy again from just looking at her, and quickly turned back to Max. She was giving me a look, and I covered what I had been thinking up by saying, "Where do you think she comes from?" Max was about to say something, but Angel yanked on her sleeve. "Max. We can't trust her. I can't get anything from her, except that she is evil. She loves pain, chaos, and destruction, and hates rules. She won't listen to you, or anyone else. We can't trust her," she repeated, an edge creeping into her voice. _Man, _I thought, _what did that girl think that got Angel all uptight like this?_ Usually, with regular evil like Ari had been, she could take it. But this must be something strong and hard. _Ari._ The thought of him made me sad. He was really good in the end. I miss him.

_I do to, Max_

Great. _Jeb. What are you doing in my head?_ I thought.

_I wanted to tell you something important. Itex-_

_Yea, I know, _I thought quickly, then described the new girl.

_Max, you shouldn't trust her, but you need her to survive. I'm not kidding when I say that she is the only chance of survival._

_Okay, I'll remember that._ I thought.

_Good. And back on the subject of Ari, I managed to get him out of the place. They're de-eraserfying him. They made him avian, like you, but other than that it's going to be the old Ari again._ He sounded almost excited, and pleased.

_Ari is going to survive??_ I just about squealed, then scolded myself for acting so ditzy. I laughed out loud, then said, "Old Ari's back! The seven-year-old Ari is alive! They de-erasered him, and now he's avian like us!" I laughed again, then broke into coughing.

_Take it easy, Max. You're still in danger. More than you know. If you trust Sam, she might kill you. If you don't, the disease will kill you. Be careful. And as soon as Ari is back to… normal, I'll immunize him and send him to you guys. He might be a lot of help._ Jeb said, then I felt him depart.

"Max? Ari is alive?" Nudge asked tentatively.

"Yup!" I answered happily, then remembered Sam. This was not a great situation to be in.


	6. Chapter 6

((grr, its not doing it in the double space…. This is probably my last post for tonight, its really late and my brain is RIP. And oh yea, P.S.- Total isn't in this one. I'll just say he's staying with Dr. Martinez or something. If you really really want him in, just tell me in a review.))

**Fang**

Max turned back to Sam, and then broke down coughing again. "Jeez, Max, that's a smoker's cough," I said, trying to cheer her up and get myself from thinking about Sam. Where had the feelings for Max gone? I thought I loved Max, but now, with Sam here, Max was water under the bridge, whatever that means. "So… what now? Should we run off to a hospital or something? I don't think we should, 'cause we'd freak out the doctors, and I hate the smell of hospital, it reminds me of the School. Plus, they probably wouldn't know much about this. Sam said to trust her, so should we? She made you better, but you're still not all the way better, and hffff," she broke off as I slapped my hand over her mouth. "She's got a point. What now?" I asked quietly, as Sam just started to stir.

**Sam**

I shook myself of my little death trip, and opened my eyes, blinking a lot. Fang asked, "What now?" and glanced in my direction. I gave him a small flirty grin, and saw something behind his eyes light up. I liked him sort of, but not a ton. From the looks of it, he was crazy about me, and couldn't look away. I tucked that thought away for future reference. "Now we get back to some z's. Nudge, could you put some dirt on the fire? Don't put it out, just dim it. Gazzy, Iggy, go get some good brush to lie on, half of this moss is thistles. Angel, Fang, could you do a quick fly around to check the area for other people? I'll keep first watch, and Fang, you can take second, then Iggy. I'll break the watch up into more, shorter ones. We need to stay rested if we're going to get through this," I said, answering Fang's question. I saw him dissolve under my crocodile grin, but Max looked angry. "Excuse me, but who died and made you leader? 'Cause I'm the current one, and I'm sure as heck not dead." I just raised an eyebrow, and glanced around as the flock listened to me, chatting happily among themselves. Max's face reddened, and I stifled a laugh. This was working out just as I'd planned. The flock already accepted me as leader, Fang, who I'd thought was going to be tough, was putty in my hands, and Max is the only one rebelling. She'll make herself an outcast, and I can help. I could make her stay away from the others, saying it was to try to keep the disease from spreading, and they'd believe me. She was already looking pale and feverish again.


	7. Chapter 7

((hai guys, im back. Might not post much today, I got to go to a wedding reception for some relative. I won't post as much during the week, either, cause I got school (blea). And thanks for the reviews, but I only got 3 . I wanna get it up to at least ten, soon. And the disclaimer is still in action. Oh, p.s. again, when I do italics and underlines, it's a voice talking. Notice I said **a,** not **the.** It's called foreshadowing, look for it.))

**Max**

I practically snarled at Sam, but everyone was actually listening to her! What is this? I so wanted to punch her lights out, but I wasn't feeling too great again. I just gave her my death look and sank down under the tree. _I'll get my flock back,_ I thought weakly. _Just after a little rest…_

**Sam**

This was great.

"Gazzy, clear a bit of that brush away from the fire." I said, yanking back a smoking branch. Nudge walked up to me, and hesitated.

"Is Max going to be alright?" she asked.

"Yup," I answered, rubbing a crooked feather back into place on her wing affectionately. She brightened at my reply, then started talking nonstop.

"Great! I hope she's better soon, but while she's out, you can be, like, the replacement leader! We can fly around, and maybe go shopping, cause Max has a magic credit card with no limit. Can you fly? I haven't seen you fly. What color are your feathers?" she paused for breath, and I interrupted.

"Whoa, nelly. And, sure, I'll be co-leader. I can fly, and I don't have feathers. Look," I said, stretching out my black bat wings with blood-red slashes across them. Nudge gaped at them, astonished.

"Wow! Those are so cool! Your, like, a… a demon thing! Like a bat! I think Iggy is part bat, cause he can hear so well. Maybe he can… echa-echolikate or something." She blabbed out. I laughed.

"It's echo_locate._ And I think we should get some sleep now. Tomorrow's gonna be a long day." I added in. I held out my fist, and everyone stacked them, before curling up on the cushy pine needles. Fang looked confused for a moment when I stuck out my fist, but he still stuck his in, too. I was already practically leader. And I might let Max die… no, that wouldn't solve anything.

_It would solve many things, but you still shouldn't. You need her later._

Oh joy. My voice was back. Hadn't heard from it in almost a week. _Hey, voice, how's it going? Been a while._

_Yes, it has. You need to focus. It's your watch, and you're never safe. Slithards are on their way, tracking you even as I speak._

_Seriously? Jeez, I thought those were gone. Some hope. Does the flock know about them?_

_No, so you need to be prepared. You've proven that you're smart, fast, and good at leading, now you need to show them how you can fight. Show them your skill._

_Got it._ I answered as the voice faded. I leaded back against the tree, watching carefully. Yes, slithards. Snake men. They got scales, fangs, and claws. They're the newest weapon. They have brains, scales for armor, poisonous fangs, are really fast, and have long claws. The only good thing about them is that they only last for two years, and they're hard to make, so they only send about ten. The most I've ever seen was twenty at once. I sat there, listening and watching hard.


	8. Chapter 8

((here's the next chapter. Don't really know what else to say, except that if I don't get up to at least 10 reveiws, I'm gonna stop for a while. So _**REVIEW PLZ**_))

**Sam**

We survived the night, with no sign of slithards. The next day, Iggy was sick. I found him barfing his guts out in the bushes. So now I had to de-heat two of them. Max was still angry at me, and I could tell that she resented the fact that her life was in my hands. I was pretty sure that Angel was going to be the next one down, 'cause she seemed really quiet and nervous, her eyes widening when ever she looked at me. I heard her talking to Nudge that she couldn't read my mind, so that might be what she was so freaked about. And I realized that if I was to go and freeze myself to death in a brook before de-heating Max and Iggy, then it wasn't as bad. It was still tiring, but not boiling hot. After a while, I knew I had to get away for a while, have some Sam time.

"I'm going to get some food and water. Hold the fort," I told them, taking off. I landed about a minute later at a nice cave, almost ten miles away. I yanked out my ipod and turned on my music, leaning against the cave wall, letting fatigue and depression take me.

_I couldn't tell you why she felt that way,_

_She felt it everyday._

_And I couldn't help her,_

_I just watched her make the same mistakes again._

_What's wrong, what's wrong now?_

_Too many, too many problems._

_Don't know where she belongs, where she belongs._

_She wants to go home, but nobody's home._

_It's where she lies, broken inside._

_With no place to go, no place to go to dry her eyes._

_Broken inside._

I let my tears fall freely. I had never ever been happy in my life, not really. Heck, I couldn't even remember what it was like to be really happy, really free.

_Open your eyes and look outside, find the reasons why._

_You've been rejected, and now you can't find what you left behind._

_Be strong, be strong now._

_Too many, too many problems._

_Don't know where she belongs, where she belongs._

_She wants to go home, but nobody's home._

_It's where she lies, broken inside._

_With no place to go, no place to go to dry her eyes._

_Broken inside._

_Her feelings she hides._

_Her dreams she can't find._

_She's losing her mind._

_She's fallen behind._

_She can't find her place._

_She's losing her faith._

_She's fallen from grace._

_She's all over the place._

_Yeah,oh_

I can't take this. This is never going to end.

_She wants to go home, but nobody's home._

_It's where she lies, broken inside._

_With no place to go, no place to go to dry her eyes._

_Broken inside._

_She's lost inside, lost inside...oh oh yeah_

_She's lost inside, lost inside...oh oh yeah_

Furiously, I spun around and banged my head against the rock. When that didn't help, I smashed my fist into a sharp spot. Blood ran down my cracked knuckles, and it felt so good. I punched the rock again and again. It was so good, I couldn't stop. Finally, I collapsed to the ground, sobbing.

I lost track of time, and finally got up. Slowly, I licked my bloodied fist, savoring the stinging. I flew slowly to the town, so that my face wasn't red anymore, and I didn't get many weird looks. I bought antiseptic and bandages, food and water. Carrying the bags on my arms like weird bracelets, I flew back to my cave and wrapped my hand, enjoying the throbbing and the jolts of pain as I dumped the antiseptic on it. Then, I flew quickly back to the flock, planning a lie to give to them that would tell them about me being gone for so long. I had also bought one of those arm-band-wrist-things, dark maroon and black, to put on over the bandages to cover them up.

**Gasman**

I was so freaked. Iggy, my partner-in-crime, was sick, and could die. I was pretty proud of how well I hid my worries, but Angel found out.

_It's okay. He'll be alright, we just need to keep Sam around for long enough._ She said into my mind when Sam took off to get groceries. I shrugged, and thought, _Okay._

Then I realized something else. She had said, 'keep Sam around for long enough.' Did that mean that we were going to get rid of Sam? No, we couldn't. She was great, an awesome leader like Max, but, I feel really bad about saying this, without the faults. She was funny, sweet, smart, quick, knew how to make all of us laugh, gave us more privlages, but kept some limits. With Max, everything had limits. She even showed me that she kept a beautiful silver gun, an uzi, she called it, in case of emergencies. Max would never allow a gun, so she asked me not to tell her. I agreed, of course. If I said that she had an, an uzi, then she'd throw her out right then and there.

Finally, when we started to get worried, Sam got back. She had tons of groceries, and had bought some good stuff, too, like a few chocolate bars and gummies. She still had the healthy stuff, but with a bit of sugar on top. Not literally, but she got the good and the other good. She was like that as a leader, too. She smiled and greeted us, and told us that she thought she had gotten recognized by a whitecoat at the grocery, and spent some time avoiding him, but then realized that it wasn't who she thought it was. Then I noticed something odd. She had on one of those armband things, sorta like a glove but not, and I saw bandages under it. And if I wasn't mistaken, the bandages had lots of blood on them.

"What did you do to your hand, Sam?" I asked curiously.

((Sam is sorta like Ari was. She has terrible mood swings, and is always either depressed or angry. But she covers it up really well, and it's not cause of the same reasons that Ari was so weirded out. DON'T FORGET TO PLZ _**REVIEW**_))


	9. Chapter 9

((rggh, chapter 8 won't show up…. So I'll post this one and see if that helps… again, REVIEW. And the slithards are my creation ;) yay. They've got thin bat wings, too.))

**Fang**

I'm a bit worried about this whole Sam thing. God, she's hot, but she's really taking Max's place. And Max didn't seem a whole lot better today, so I wonder if Sam's really helping or hurting. Iggy is sick now, too, and it's freaking me out. I don't know who's next, and I know that there's no escaping it. Angel was looking a bit pale today, so I think she's next. She seems scared of Sam. Maybe it's cause she can't get anything from her. I should ask Sam what's going on. She just landed, and I saw her wings for the first time. Wow. She looked like the height of demons. Demon wings, dark eyes, the height of temptation. Wow.

**Sam**

When Gazzy asked me about my hand, I feel like I did pretty well hiding my fear.

"I was trying to get the bread with the longest expiration date in the back, and sliced my hand on a sharp bit under the shelf. I'm fine, though," I added. Inside, I was swearing a lot. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Fang walk over. _Oh, crud,_ I thought, and smiled at him.

"Get much? And nice armband," he said, returning my crocodile smile.

_Don't loose your head, Sam. You can't let them know that their leader was cutting themselves._

I held back a snarl. The voice always comes in at the worst times. _I'm fine! Get out of my head! I can handle this!_ I practically screamed at it.

_Fine. Oh, by the way, there's about twenty slithards coming at you right about... now._

I swore and spun around as the slithards jumped nimbly through the brush. I could take on about three on my own, five if I was pressured, and the others had no idea how to fight them.

"Aim for the eyes and the wings!" I shouted, leaping into the fray at super speed. They apparently had been trained about my Talents, and were smart. They waited for me, and when I kicked at one it used my speed against me. It let my foot hit its shoulder, and spun with it at about 150 mph, swinging a fist at me. But it wasn't smart enough. When it spun, it was going some 100 mph slower than me, so I had time to get behind it. I grabbed its tail, and spun it, smashing down about four others, two of which fell to the ground and didn't get up. Remind me to laugh later. The slithard that I was spinning grabbed a tree, jerking himself out of my grip, his feet slashing my arm. He launched himself off the tree, but was again too slow. I jumped into the air, my feet clearing his outstretched claws, and timing it perfectly. I landed on his spine, breaking it and killing him. Then I turned back to the battle. _Three down, 17 to go._

**Fang**

I could easily tell when Sam lied about her hand. She was hiding something, but when she gave me a crocodile smile, I forgot what I was thinking about. Then, suddenly, her eyes switched out of focus. It seemed familiar how she did it, like I'd seen it happen before. Then she swore loudly and turned around. Then I think I lost my mind, because freakish snake-men were jumping out of the woods. About twenty of them. Sam shouted something about eyes and wings, so I snapped a kick at the nearest one's face. He just opened his mouth and snapped down on my foot, his fangs buried in my shoe but not touching my foot. I pulled my foot out of the shoe and kicked his chin. His head snapped back, and I heard his neck break. Then I moved to the next victim. I saw Sam kill about three of them in ten seconds flat, and Angel making two fight each other. Gazzy was defending Max and Iggy, who were weakly kicking at them. I killed the next snake dude and ran to Gazzy, helping him.

After a long time of fighting, (I'll spare you the gory details,) we were all standing, panting over about twenty lizard things.

"What were those?" I asked Sam quietly.

"Slithards. Snake men. They've got poisonous fangs, hard scales, thin wings, and claws. They're the new weapon for Itex, smarter, faster, more powerful." She answered, her soft velvety voice giving me new energy. She was like a drug to me, helping me survive. I couldn't live without her.


	10. Chapter 10

((that song from chapter 8 is called 'Nobody's Home' by Avril Lavenge. Love her songs, all except for that 'Girlfriend' crap, that totally ruined her. I like her old songs, all of her depressed ones. They're good. And about that 10 review thing, whatever. If I don't get reviews, then I don't get reviews. But seriously, for all of you guys that are being lazy and just reading this without reviewing, im gonna kick ur buts if you don't review. I can see who's viewed this, so neener neener lolness. And a little fyi about Sam- she's always either sad, depressed, or angry, just good at covering it up. Sorta like Ari had been. She is sorta emo-ish, and her physical pain distracts her from her internal pain))

**Sam**

I slouched back to the others. "Report," I said weakly, rubbing my hand. The arm thing had been torn off by one of the slithards, and the bandages had been taken with it. Fang asked about them, and I quickly summarized them. Fang nodded solemnly, and then noticed my hand.

"What the he-eck did you do? Don't lie, that's not from a slithard." He growled, tearing off the remains of the bandages. We looked down at my hand. It was shredded, and a small bit of rock was still in it.

"Punched at a slithard. Missed. Hit the tree," I said simply, removing the rock. He looked angry, but didn't say anything else. He grabbed my good hand and dragged me over to the bag with all the first aid stuff in it, and started pouring more antiseptic on it. I resisted the urge to sigh in delight as it burned and stung, instead disguising it as a groan. As soon as he was finished, he sat there, with my hand in his for a moment, then seemed to suddenly realize what he was doing. He yanked his hand away, biting his lip. I gave him a small smile, then checked on the rest of the crew. Gazzy only had a bruise on one knee and a small scrape on his forehead, Nudge was unharmed, but looked shocked, and Fang had a long scratch going down one arm.

"It isn't deep," he said, bandaging it himself. I got up to check on Iggy and Max. I passed Angel, and could feel the heat radiating off her as she sneezed. Stopping, I turned to her. She gave me a weak smile before dashing to the bushes, puking. She collapsed on the ground, crying. I walked over and picked her up, rubbing her hair and whispering to her.

"S'alright, you're gonna be fine. Don't worry." She just continued to cry weakly, so I sang gently to her, de-heating her as I sang.

_Now that she's back in the atmosphere _

_With drops of Jupiter in her hair, hey, hey _

_She acts like summer and walks like rain _

_Reminds me that there's time to change, hey, hey _

_Since the return from her stay on the moon _

_She listens like spring and she talks like June, hey, hey _

_Tell me did you sail across the sun _

_Did you make it to the Milky Way to see the lights all faded _

_And that heaven is overrated _

_Tell me, did you fall for a shooting star _

_One without a permanent scar _

_And did you miss me while you were looking for yourself out there _

_Now that she's back from that soul vacation _

_Tracing her way through the constellation, hey, hey _

_She checks out Mozart while she does tae-bo _

_Reminds me that there's room to grow, hey, hey _

_Now that she's back in the atmosphere _

_I'm afraid that she might think of me as plain ol' Jane _

_Told a story about a man who is too afraid to fly so he never did land _

_Tell me did the wind sweep you off your feet _

_Did you finally get the chance to dance along the light of day _

_And head back to the Milky Way _

_And tell me, did Venus blow your mind _

_Was it everything you wanted to find _

_And did you miss me while you were looking for yourself out there _

_Can you imagine no love, pride, deep-fried chicken _

_Your best friend always sticking up for you _

_Even when I know you're wrong _

_Can you imagine no first dance, freeze dried romance five-hour phone conversation _

_The best soy latte that you ever had and me _

_Tell me did the wind sweep you off your feet _

_Did you finally get the chance to dance along the light of day _

_And head back toward the Milky Way _

_Tell me did you sail across the sun _

_Did you make it to the Milky Way to see the lights all faded _

_And that heaven is overrated _

_Tell me did you fall for a shooting star _

_One without a permanent scar _

_And did you miss me while you were looking for yourself_

_And did you finally get the chance to dance along the light of day_

_And did you fall for a shooting star_

_Fall for a shooting star_

_And are you lonely looking for yourself out there_

When I finished, Angel was asleep, and I realized that Fang was staring at me with an astonished look on his face. I set Angel down and turned back to him. We stared at each other for a long second, and then I gave an uncomfortable weak laugh.

**Fang**

Angel is sick. She started puking in the bushes, and then fell over, crying. Sam picked her up, and started singing 'Drops of Jupiter' by Train. It was ungodly. She sang like an angel, making the original song I knew and loved sound like crap. I got lost in her song. All I could to was to listen with everything I had and stare at her, amazed. How on earth did she know that was one of my favorite songs? She amazed me in every way. Finally, when she finished, Angel was cooled down and asleep. She set her down gently, even making that small movement look beautiful and graceful, and turned to me. We just looked at each other for a moment.

"Heh…" she sort of laughed, and I shook my head weakly, trying to come back from the high she had put me in.

"Wow. Th-that was amazing! I never knew you could sing like that! Just… Wow!" I managed to gasp. She gave me my favorite crocodile grin, and jumped slightly when Nudge started bouncing up and down, ending our moment. _Here we go…_ I thought.

"Wow? Is that all you can say, Fang? That was more than wow, that was remarkable, staggering, divine, flawless, not wow. You should become a famous singer, and you could tell people about Itex like Fang's blog! And then we'd have evghhhfff-" She broke off as Gazzy walked up and clamped his hand over her mouth. He even looked impressed.

"Pretty good, Sam. Iggy's sorta good, too, but he sound's like junk compared to you," the Gasman said, his eyebrows raised. Sam blushed, and gave them all a nervous grin, then let it fade.

"Angel is sick," She stated simply.


	11. Chapter 11

((thank you for all the reviews! The reception was good, my little pyro bro almost caught a napkin on fire on a candle… lolness I'm proud to say I helped. And about Sam, I don't want to say too much about her. I'll make a little thing from the past))

**14 years ago at The Home**

Greg looked over the list carefully. It said that there was a small red vial with DNA that had gone bad, as in, rotten, expired, bad. The list also said that he should dispose of it. But when he moved to grab it, some impulse stopped him. They had told him to throw stuff like that away so many times, and they didn't know what would happen if he was to inject it into one of the subjects, like they did to create other mutants. He examined the bottle critically, then made a decision. He grabbed a needle and left the room.

**Sam**

I was exaughsted. Three people to de-heat, and only four of us healthy. And I could tell that Gazzy was going to be the fourth to join Max, Angel, and Iggy. Max was getting critical, and I had to cool her off every two hours. I knew that it was going to get to almost death before it started to really get better, and I was nervous for that.

_Just go with it, you can do it,_ My voice put in.

_Thanks,_ I groaned back as I walked over to check on the sick ones. Angel didn't seem to be as weak as the others, and was getting better already. Must be another mutation, she didn't end up going through the full cycle like the others. The slithards hadn't attacked since the day before, and I knew it wouldn't be long until they did.

"Yo! Up and at 'em! We're moving today. The slithards know where we are, so we gotta skidaddle. Fang and I are going to help each of you sick ones to our next place, and Nudge and Gazzy will stay guard over the others" I said, gathering Max up as I spoke. Fang walked over quickly and helped. She groaned weakly and shifted slightly, but nothing other than that.

"I'll cool her off first. The wind might help her stay cool for longer," I said wearily, placing my hand on her forehead and starting the process. I was getting better at it, and it wasn't mind-numbing exaughstion anymore. Just exaughstion.

Fang and I moved everyone quickly and uneventfully. Nudge got scared when Gazzy passed out, and we had to carry him over, too. He joined Max and the others.

We stayed in the my cave, and before we went there, I made sure that all of my blood was cleaned up. I was going there once every two days now, waging war against myself. Nobody seemed to notice the bandages staying on for a long time, longer than what it should take, so that was one good thing.

The next day, I felt like I hadn't slept, even though I had slept longer than usual. Fang was already up, helping the sick ones get a drink at the stream in the back of the cave. I nodded casually to him, and he smiled. We had gotten quite close lately, spending a lot of time just sitting and talking. I knew a lot about him, and he didn't know a ton about me, but knew quite a bit about my personality. He told me about his past, and I kept silent, sticking to comments instead of my own story. He thought his past was bad? A whitecoat had made me without permission. I was tortured every day of my imprisonment, just for existing. They would shock me repeatedly just to see my reaction, testing different concoctions on my skin to see what would affect me worse. They made me sick, then healed me, then whipped me mercilessly. They made me fight against ten slithards alone, and see how long I could take my beating before I passed out. During lunch break, they would cause me pain for entertainment, and wouldn't feed me for a long time, taunting me with scrumptious lunches just out of my reach. Then I got depressed and gave up trying, and they got bored of me quickly. Then the worse things started happening. They would force me to beat other mutants, to whip them and shock them. If I refused, they would beat the mutant twice as hard. They would test different torture devices on me, from Chinese water torture to pouring liquid plastic all over my body, and argue over who got the privlage to tear it off. I realized that I was trembling as I thought that, and Fang gave me a quizzical look. I turned away, clamping my jaw down on a sob. Fang walked over and put his arms around me in a hug. I cried into his shoulder, and he rubbed my hair, murmuring gently to me. After a long time, we pulled away.

"Sorry," I muttered, and started to turn away. He grabbed my shoulder and turned me back to him. One hand was on my shoulder, the other tilting my chin up to his. And, just like that, we were kissing. I remember once hearing someone say that if you can tie a cherry stem in a knot with your toung, then you're a master kisser. I almost laughed at that. I gently pushed him against the cave wall, my hands on his chest and his on my back. He tilted his head a bit so that I could kiss him better, and then I remembered that I had to breathe. I pulled back for a second to gasp a breath, then his lips found mine again.

I'll spare you the details, there may be young kids reading this. But we kissed, and it was so good. I was actually happy. I remember thinking, _Is this what being happy feels like?_, then not really caring.

When we pulled apart, I saw Nudge flying speedily to the cave mouth. She ran to a stop, then turned to us, gasping.

"G-guys! There's about six slithards coming our way, so be ready!" she panted. Fang and I stepped apart, trading smiles. Then the slithards were on us.

**Nudge**

Sam had asked if I could give a spot check, scanning the area. I took my time, wondering what she and Fang were doing. I hoped that they would fall in love, then instantly slapped my forehead. What was I thinking? Max was our leader, Max should be with Fang, not Sam. I was thinking hard about this when I noticed what I was staring at. A small group of slithards, six, were flying towards our cave. I said a word Max wouldn't have been happy about, then spun around, blasting back to the cave.

"G-guys! There's about six slithards coming our way, so be ready!" I gasped at them. Then I noticed that they were standing very close. Too close. I didn't have much time to think about that, as the slithards were there already. I jumped into battle, fighting with everything I had. Each of us had two attacking them, and it was pretty hard. I swung a punch at one, and then felt burning fangs sink into my arm. I realized that Sam had said that they were venomous.

((hehe… I feel evil… cliff hanger… bwa ha ha ha…))


	12. Chapter 12 wow, I've don a lot

((I might make them meet another flock person, and have Max go with him. Or make Sam go with him. Dunno, I'm just improvising right about now. Lolness, even I don't know where I'm going with this. Disclaimer continues, for the songs, too. And sorry that this is such a short chapter, I'm supposed to be doing my homework ;) hehe))

**Sam**

I fought furiously against my two slithards, and turned to punch one when I saw Nudge collapse, her arm punctured from fangs.

_Poisonous. If you get to her, you have to suck the poison out of the wound,_ my voice put in.

_Shut up! I know what to do!_ I hollered at it.

"Nudge!" I screeched, trying to get to her. But while we had been busy with the first six, another ten or so had swamped the cave. Four converged on me, tying my arms, wings, and feet. I managed to take one of them out with a nice snap kick, but another just took its place. In moments, I was bound and helpless in the corner, watching as they started on Fang.

**Iggy**

I tried to get up to fight, but my legs felt like rubber. I heard a cry, and the sickening sound of flesh ripping, then felt someone fall to the ground. I crawled over carefully.

"Ig?" It was Nudge, panting on the floor.

"I'm here. What just happened?"

"Got bit. I-I think they're poisonous," she murmured.

I swore. "Where?" I said urgently.

I felt her grab my hand and direct it to her arm, onto a pool of blood. I swore again, then lifted her arm up to my mouth.

"Wha' are ya doin?" she groaned. I didn't answer as I carefully began sucking the poison out of the wound. She groaned again, and I kept going until I didn't taste that chemical tang in her blood. Then I ripped off a bit of my shirt and tied it over the bite. She sighed in pleasure.

"Thanks," she whispered, then drew my face to hers, as a bunch of slithard things stomped our way.

**Fang**

There were just too darned many of them! I fought my hardest, but it still wasn't enough. I saw a ton of them gang up on Sam and tie her up. She only had time to take one down, before she was beat. Then they turned to me, garnet eyes glinting, black scales shining. I swore a bunch, then fought harder than I ever had. I turned to one, and snapped a punch, and was surprised to feel ice suddenly shield my fist from the scales, and small icicles spring up on my knuckles, puncturing his neck. He fell to the ground, and I kicked at another, feeling yet another shard of ice form on my shoe and stab right through the scales. I grinned, fighting with renewed energy. I had gotten a new ability! I fought and fought, throwing icicles and suffocating a few with ice, but it only hampered my capture. Finally, a large crowd of them attacked me, tying me up. I saw one lower a needle to my arm, and was out. But not before I saw Nudge and Iggy, lying in a puddle of blood, kissing.


	13. Chapter 13

((holy crapoli, I've done a lot of chapters. When did I start this? Yesterday? Or the day before? Anyways, twelve chapters :D and do any of youse go on the regular MR boards? 'cause they're down for me, and I wanna know if it's just my laptop, or the boards themselves. I'm on about seven RPs, so they're probably sticking knives in a redfeatherz doll. The boards have been down for about a week and a half, so im starting to get really nervous. If any of youse know anything, plz tell me in a review. Oh, and FYI- Dave is like Jeb))

**Sam**

I woke up to a horribly familiar smell. It smelled like chemicals. I could tell where I was because the chemical smell of this place had one thing that no others did. It smelled almost sickening sweet. I opened my eyes and saw it. This was the only lab that had it. The airfresheners hanging on some cages. I was always scared to wake up and see one on the cage beside me. You could tell who was dead or dying from the airfresheners. It was how they marked the ones who were leaving us. I was back in The Home.

I peered into the cages around me. On my left was Max, and on the right was Nudge. Behind mine was Fang, and on his sides was Iggy and Gazzy. Angel was on the other side of Nudge. So we all were here. I reached over and was just able to touch a finger to Max's arm, and started to de-heat her. After I was finished, I turned to Fang.

"Fang?" I whispered. He stirred and sat up blearily.

"Wha's goin on? Where are we?" he muttered.

"The Home. The lab where I come from. Check everyone's cages for air fresheners." I waited impatiently as he did.

"Nope. Why?"

"That's how they mark the dead and dying," I said softly. I saw him stiffen, and he turned towards me.

"Look," he whispered, and stretched out his hand. At first I didn't notice anything, but then saw a small crystal of ice form in his palm.

"Wow, Fang! You got a Talent! Great! Reach over and try to cool Iggy and Gazzy off. I think I can reach Angel," I said, stretching my arm through a small gap in my cage to touch Angel's heel. I cooled her off quickly, then turned back to Fang. He made a small coating of ice on Iggy's and Gazzy's heads, then turned to me.

"How are we gonna get out of here? We can't carry all of them, and I think we're gonna loose Nudge soon," he whispered as Nudge coughed weakly. I shrugged and started to de-heat Nudge. As soon as I was done, I realized something. I grabbed her arm and examined it. A bit of Iggy's shirt was tied on it, and I pulled it off. There was the snake bite. She would have died by now from the poison. She groaned and shifted slightly.

"Nudge? What happened to your arm?" I asked gently. She groaned again.

"I got bit. Iggy came over and sucked the poison out of it," she murmured. Fang gave her a long look.

"That's not all he sucked. I saw you two kissing," he added. I allowed no surprise to show on my face. He glanced at me for a second when Nudge was distracted, coughing again. I gave him our trademark crocodile grin, and he returned it. I looked around the room again, searching for something that could help us. Then I saw the cage across from me. It had a mutant about my age in it, with blonde hair and silver wings. I narrowed my eyes, trying to see his face better, and he turned to me. His mouth dropped open in astonishment.

"Sam?" he gaped. I just stared back.

"Polo?" I whispered back.

"It's really you! I thought you died when you escaped! What happened? And who's with you?" he asked, smiling. I felt Fang's cold stare at my back, and I turned to him.

"This is Polotheus, A.K.A. Polo. He was here with me, and he escaped with me. We got… separated. He's like my brother," I added at his dark look. It softened the instant I mentioned 'brother,' and I could tell what he was thinking. I didn't need to be a mind reader. I turned back to Polo.

"This is Max's flock. You know, the ones that almost destroyed Itex. This is Max, Fang, Iggy, Gazzy, Nudge, and Angel," I said, pointing them out. "We got caught by slithards. And ya know that plan B that Itex has? Well, it's in play," I said, motioning to Max's crumpled form. "We can't escape until at least one or two of them are better. I think Angel already pretty much is," I added, glancing at her. She was sitting up, looking healthy.

**Fang**

I was worried about this new kid, Polo. He seemed to know Sam a bit better that I would have liked. But when she talked with him, her… demeanor seemed to be different than it was with me. It was like she was talking to just Iggy, not someone she liked. She told him our story.

"What happened when we escaped?" he asked. I perked up, listening intently. She hadn't said much about her past. She took a deep breath, still looking beautiful even with her slightly rumpled hair and curled up position. She pulled her knees to herself, and stared into a place I couldn't see.

"When they set us out to fight the slithards, one Dave dropped his pen, on purpose I think. I grabbed it and used the spring in it to unlock my wrist thing, so they couldn't shock me. I kept it on, but unlocked. When the slithards started to attack, I spun and let their claw hit the ties on my wings, so it cut. It slashed up my back pretty bad, but I managed to get some five miles away. Dave helped me, sent someone with supplies and gave the lab a false trail. I met up with a group of slithards, and managed to beat them, but I got shot and passed out, almost died. A family found me, and helped me get better. I wandered around for a long time, trying to figure things out, when I met up with the flock. Max got sick, then Iggy, Angel, Gazzy, and now Nudge. We got to a cave, and a bunch of slithards attacked. Now we're here," she said. I could tell that she was leaving some details out, but I didn't dig. Just as she finished, two whitecoats walked in and strode up to my cage and Sam's cage.

"Come with me," mine said, and I followed it. I saw a silver table with the evil straps, and I started to turn away. But the whitecoat grabbed my hand and snapped a metal bracelet on my wrist. I froze. This must be the shock thing Sam was talking about. I slowly walked to the table and laid down. The straps were fastened, and another whitecoat taped little sensors to my arms, head, and legs. I was almost shaking from fear. He reached over and turned a dial on the side of the table, and a titanic shock hit me. I clenched my teeth and closed my eyes, refusing to show weakness. I could faintly hear the doctors whispering, then they cranked the shock up. I was shaking from the electricity, and then I felt a wall of pain knock me out.


	14. Chapter 14 last one for 2nite i think

((yea. I'm lass (that's girl, right?), and when Max is better all heck is really gonna break loose. Don't want to say too much to ruin the story ;) lolness. And I'm proud to say that I made this song up myself.))

**Sam**

They took me on a familiar path. I remembered each turn and twist, they had taken me on it so many times. They opened the door, and I followed them in. It was my room, no, suite. There was Generation Omega, and my real name was Generation Superior, so I had a bit more freedom than other mutants. Polotheus wasn't Polo's real name, either. It was Generation Perfection, but he didn't like that, so he changed it, too. My room was dark red and black, with a deep maroon silk bed, a black laptop in the corner, and a black marble bathroom attached. There was a kitchen on the other side, with dark red tiling and other things. I walked in and they shut the door. I heard the lock click, and frowned. They would put me in here for ages at a time, away from everyone else. I almost preferred a cage to solitary confinement, with or without the luxuries. I flopped down on my bed and pulled my laptop to me. I opened a musicmaker, and started creating a song.

_I loved you forever_

_But you loved me never_

_I'm falling apart_

_You're stabbing my heart_

_You will always hate me_

_You'll never date me_

_You could pick anyone_

_And I'm just a no-one_

_You're always occupied_

_Always have a sweetie pie_

_And I'll curl up and die_

_Never with me_

_You are so fine_

_And I'm not divine_

_And I'm far from fine_

_Never with me_

_Your eyes look at me_

_Like I'm not even there_

_Alone I have been_

_I'll never win_

_I'm tripping and falling_

_You ignore my calling_

_You'd never love me_

_You're too far above me_

_You're always occupied_

_Always have a sweetie pie_

_And I'll curl up and die_

_Never with me_

_You are so fine_

_And I'm not divine_

_And I'm far from fine_

_Never with me_

_I'll do anything_

_To be your everything_

_I'm crashing_

_I'm burning_

_Fever for you_

_Cause I am so blue_

_Blue skies when I'm dying_

_Just shoot a hole through my head_

_See what I'm thinking_

_Thinking about you_

_I love you so_

_But you'll never know_

_You won't try me_

_You always deny me_

_Deny me life's love_

_I loved you forever_

_But you loved me never_

_I'm falling apart_

_You're stabbing my heart_

_You will always hate me_

_You'll never date me_

_You could pick anyone_

_And I'm just a no-one_

_I loved you forever_

_But you loved me never_

_You're never forever_

_Never_

_Never_

_Never with me_

**Max**

I felt ice form on my face, and it felt so good. I didn't really know what was real or not since I had passed out in the forest. Everything kept flickering from reality to dreaming. Did Fang really kiss me, or Sam? Were there snake men attacking us? Did Angel turn into the devil and kill Gazzy? I looked around blankly, and realized that I must be dreaming again. A blonde angel ((AUTHOR'S NOTE- this is reality- it's Polo)) was in the cage almost across from me, looking at me curiously. I gave him a small smile, ((now it's back to dreamland)) and then he turned into a raven and flew away. I stared back at him, then collapsed into weirdworld again, the scene fading.


	15. SORRY!

((sry guys, I'm grounded for dunno how long. Won't post very much, but don't forget about this fanfic PLZ))


	16. Chapter 15

((I snuck on to write this. Told mum that I'm doing homework. ugh… school today… again… and thanks u guys for all the reveiws. Im sorta sad that only about three ppl are reading this, though. Wish MR was back up. Did any of you see the two moons the other night? One was mars, and the other was the normal moon. I got up to see it, but was so mad when I didn't. And sry I've been neglecting some of the other characters.))

**Angel**

I woke up in a cage, and almost screamed. Oh god we're back at the school! I couldn't feel the sickness anymore, so I knew that Sam, as much as I don't like her, pulled through. I looked around and saw Iggy, Fang, Gazzy, Nudge, and Max in cages around me. Iggy, Gazzy, and Nudge were out, but Fang was sitting there, awake.

_Fang? What's going on? And where's Sam?_ I asked him with my mind. He shrugged.

_We got caught by those slithards. I'm not sure where Sam is. I was hoping you could answer that. They took me off and zapped me a lot, and took her off too. But she's not back ye,._ He thought.

_I can't read her mind, _I replied sadly.

_Read the whitecoat's minds,_ he suggested. I dropped connection with him and stretched my mind out, feeling for whitecoats. I touched one, and went in. What I saw scared me more than any torture device. I saw Sam relaxing in a room with a beautiful bed and a laptop and a kitchen and a bathroom.

_She betrayed us! She's sitting in some comfy room, relaxing!_ I told Fang, then sent him the view. I felt shock and betrayal rip through him, and wondered why he was so upset. I dug deep into his mind silently, and found a memory of him kissing Sam. The memory of time with Max was very deep, buried under Sam. I wondered about that. He used to love Max, but when he looked at her, he only felt pity and guilt. He felt guilty because he loved Sam instead of Max. I hid a shudder as I thought about what it would be like when Max woke up.

**Fang**

I. Was. Ped. Sam had betrayed us? No, their must be a mistake. Every fiber of my being rebelled against the very thought. I growled and bowed my head. She wouldn't do that, I knew it! _Or would she?_ A bit of me thought. I held my head in my hands, hating being in the dark like this. Pain? Near death? Bring it on. Confusion? Not knowing? I'll take the pain instead, please. It was better to feel physical pain than pain like this. I remembered Sam mentioning something like that in one of our walks ((they had a lot of those, I just was too lazy to write exactly what happened. Be creative, think of what they might have talked about. I might mention a thing about them, but that's it. And there was no love or anything, just talking and sharing.)). It sounded almost like a song. I think there is a song like that, Pain by Three Day's Grace. ((holy crap I love that song)) I heard a slight rustle, and turned to see Max sit up a little. She stared confusedly at Polo for a second, then her eyes slid out of focus and she collapsed again. I shuddered, wondering what was going on in her mind. I slowly resumed layering ice on her head, just enough to keep her cool. By now, her hair was drenched with the melted water, and I froze that too, so that she would be kept nice and cool. Then, as I concentrated, I realized that a whitecoat had walked into the room.

"You. Come with me," he said quickly. He unlocked my cage and I followed him out of the room down a series of hallways. I tried to memorize the route, but there were so many turns and twists, and a ton of little other hallways. I was quickly lost. Finally, he opened a door and practically shoved me in.

"Thanks," I mumbled, and tensed, expecting more torture. But what I didn't expect was to be in a place that looked a lot like my dream room. Dark red silk bed, black and red walls, everything was black and red. There was a black marble bathroom, and a tiled kitchen attached. I looked around, amazed, and jumped when I heard someone speak.

"Like it?" Sam asked. I had been so busy looking around I hadn't seen her. Or she had been invisible. She was lying on the bed with a beautiful black laptop and had a pair of discarded headphones beside her. I clenched my teeth and strode up to her. She watched me calmly, not blinking, seeming incredibly catlike, almost like a tiger waiting to pounce. Without hesitating, I swung a fist at her face. She easily ducked it and then spun on the bed, her feet swinging around to hit me in the gut. I doubled over for a second, and it was all she needed. An invisible hand held my throat. I lashed out at her, but since I couldn't see her, I missed.

"What is wrong with you?" she hissed in my ear. I swung another punch to where her voice came from, but missed again. Her grip tightened on my throat, and I began to gulp for air.

"If you don't stop, you're going to get kicked out! They barely let me invite you in here in the first place, don't ruin all of the begging I had to do!" she snarled.

"You betrayed us! We're stuck in cages while you enjoy your stay in hotel effing paradise!" I shouted where I thought her face was. To my surprise, I heard her laughing.

"Oh Fang, you are so… dense! I don't choose to be in here! I'd rather be in a cage with you guys! They lock me in here, thinking that I want this! They put me in here for days without seeing anyone. It's the worst kind of solitary confinement, knowing that you're sitting here in luxury while your friends are in cages, being tortured. You wouldn't believe how terrible this place is," she said, laughing coldly. I stood there, blinking, finally realizing.

"So you… oh," I muttered. She turned visible and took her hand off my neck, and suddenly my hand was on hers, tilting her chin towards me. We kissed for a long moment, then flopped on the bed.

"How are the others?" she asked, rolling over to open up her laptop that she had somehow shut during the brief fight.

"Okay, I guess. Max was awake for a second, just long enough to see Polo, but then she was out again. Iggy seemed to be sleeping instead of unconscious, and Nudge is getting over it quickly. Angel's awake and healthy, she's the one who read a whitecoat's mind to find out what you were doing," I answered. For some reason, that seemed to trouble her.

"Max seems to be getting better? That's not good. The dea-" she broke off, glancing at me. I realized what she meant, and my eyes widened a fraction.

"The death? What?" I asked, slipping into my cold calm voice that I spoke in when I was experiencing extreme emotion. I used to speak like that around Max when I liked her, but it was so different with Sam. We were more relaxed, not like a secret crush, like a loving couple. Sam frowned when she noticed my monotone.

"The disease was designed to take out Max mainly. Not you others, that's why Angel was better so quick and the others aren't as bad as Max. It will seem to get better, but suddenly she'll go critical. It will be a delicate situation. It is when the fever reaches the core of her brain, and is supposed to kill her. If her body is chilled at all, then she'll die, so I have to be the one to cool her off. Internally. If I cool it too much, she'll die. If I don't cool it enough, she'll die," Sam said, matching my tone. I just stared at her, concentrating on my breathing so I wouldn't hyperventilate. Max was still important to me, just not in the same way as before. I though about my breaths, and realized that I should cherish every one. Max might not be able to take a breath anymore. No more breathing was an odd concept indeed.

"What are we going to do?" I asked Sam quietly. She slipped her hand into mine.

"We need to get Max in here as soon as she wakes up even for a second. I'll go try to get the whitecoats to listen," she answered, pulling a small walkie-talkie out of a desk drawr. She started talking into it, quickly and quietly.

**Polo**

I laid back in my cage, wondering when they would take me to my room. There's a door that connects our rooms, so we visit each other often. I wanted to see her bad. Bored, I glanced back at the sickest girl, Max. _She must be nearing the critical stage by now_, I thought. I saw the youngest girl, Angel, look at me with a look of fear in her eyes. I felt an unfamiliar consciousness touch mine, and instantly lashed out at it. I saw her wince and jerk back, then I realized that she must have mind powers too.

_Do you know what's going on?_ I asked her silently.

_Not really, except that Max is really liking being in a cage near you. Or she was for the second she was awake. She thinks that she hallucinated you,_ she answered.

_Oh joy,_ I said, faking sarcasm. I actually liked her. She was beautiful, her halo of golden hair around her like that. I ruffled my black bat wings, knowing that I was more of a demon than angel. She must not have seen my wings yet. I didn't notice the whitecoat that came until he unlocked my cage. I followed him to my room, studying his brain all the while. He wasn't an important one. He just followed orders, doing the 'newb work' as they called it. He never got to do much of the scientific stuff, only doing chores like organizing things and taking Sam and I around. Apparently, he had just taken Fang to Sam's room. I knew something was going on between them. Then suddenly I realized that I wasn't jelous. I was thinking of Max.


	17. Chapter 16

((LONG WEEKEND!!! YAYNESS!! But I have two other projects that my dumb teachers assigned, and their due next week. They're huge projects, too. Whatever. Only eight more school days until harvest break, though. And don't worry, I don't think I'll make Max die. Well, I might, but I don't think I will. I dunno. I might start another fanfic and put my story I have to write for English in it. Lolness, here's a bit of randomness- I'm listening to Drops of Jupiter as I write this. And P.S.- I'm putting in a bit of Sam's plan in. Not the whole thing, but just enough to tease ;) bwa ha ha ha. And sry it's short, but it's good. Evilly good. Bwa ha ha ha!!!))

**Sam**

This was not good. I talked the whitecoats into letting Max come, but if I didn't act quickly enough, Max was going to die. I didn't care too much if she did, 'cause she was going to die sooner or later anyways. Better sooner, though.

_No, later. The plan, don't forget. If you want Itex and the School and the Home to die, then they can't. Not yet._

Oh, just what we needed to add into the fun. The Voice.

_Yea, yea, I know. But the whole flock isn't going to die. Fang isn't. I've got an idea. When Max thinks that she has to sacrifices herself for the flock, I can distract Fang. Or have Polo make an eraser knock him out so we can drag him out of there. Then the flock follows Max, tries to save her, yadda yadda yadda, they die. But not Fang. He's gonna make it._

_Is that smart? Can you trust Fang? And Polo doesn't even know about the plan yet. You might discover him more resistant than you think._

_What? He's always in with me. No matter what._

_Well, there's a reason that he might not want to kill the flock. Especially Max._

_What? Why? What's going on with him and Max?_ I asked, instantly alert. But there was no answer. I snapped my teeth in helpless anger.

**Fang**

Sam did her work, and Max was being brought in. The whitecoats weren't happy about it, though. Max had corrupted MaxII, so she might be able to corrupt Sam. That's what they probably thought. Sam turned back to me, but then her eyes slid out of focus again. After a moment of silence, she snapped her teeth angrily. It puzzled me deeply. That eye thing… it seemed so familiar… Max! The Voice! I suddenly realized what was going on.

"The Voice!" I gasped aloud. Sam tensed.

"What?" she asked, but I continued to stare at her, astonished.

"You have the Voice too!" I said. She started to snarl something, but then paused and shook her head.

"I- yea, I do," she answered. She gave me a small grin. "God, Fang, you're so smart. How on earth did you find that out?" I opened my mouth to answer, but she just shook her head. "Forget it. I don't care. Now I know why I love you so much," she smiled. We kissed tenderly, wrapped up in each other. But just then, the door burst open, and Max was shoved in. She almost collapsed, then stared at Sam and I.

"What the f!!! are you doing?" she gaped, then really did collapse. Sam rushed to her. I helped her pull Max on the bed, then she sat down beside her. I gave her a worried look. She met it with a reassuring smile, and a somewhat nervous look in her eyes, but then closed them and placed her fingers on Max's head, still looking like the definition of beauty.

**Sam**

Max came in when Fang and I were kissing. Not good. But I didn't have much time to dwell on it. Max's life was at stake. I smiled reassuringly at Fang, then closed my eyes and started to go into Max's head. But suddenly, Polo's connecting door burst open. My eyes snapped open, but he took a single look at Max and was beside Max, his fingers grasping mine. We all needed to work together to save her. He could use his mind powers to help find the right spot, and Fang could help keep me cool. Fang sat beside me, a cool arm around my shoulders. I closed my eyes again, and followed Polo's lead. I wasn't very fast at going down, though, so he just grabbed me and took me down with him. Finally, I felt intense head. It almost burned my consciousness, but I just absorbed the heat that touched me. I slowly removed heat. It was a tedious job. Her memories kept popping up and distracting me, but I ignored them, Polo doing his best to brush them away. I distantly felt Fang cooling my body down, whispering softly to me. I worked for ages, but didn't think I was making any progress. Every time I cooled it down to the right temperature, it would just shoot back up again. After another forever, I realized that we might only have less than a minute to finish this, or else she was gone. Forever.

((I TOLDJA I WAS BEING EVIL!! MY EVIL LAUGH WASN'T FOR NOTHING!! BWA HA HA HA!!!))


	18. Chapter 17

**Sam**

I fought against the sickness, struggling more and more. I felt her breathing slow, her heartbeat shudder. I frantically beat against the fever, giving all of my energy into it. But suddenly, I was back in my own body. Polo looked at me with tears flowing down his face.

"It's over. She's dead."

((MWA HA HA HA!!! HOW EVIL WAS THAT?))


	19. Chapter 19

((LOL JK!!! Alright, if you don't like this ending, here's an alternate continuation thing. It's not the end yet. And that up there was just a joke, I've always wanted to do that XD hope you didn't hurt yourself too bad))

**Sam**

I fought against the disease, using every scrap of my energy. But to no avail. Desperately, I paused for a moment, thinking hard. An idea popped up in my head. Not a great one, but a pretty good one. I had seen a mutant get sick, and another one didn't want her to die. So she sucked the sickness into her own body, and she died while the first mutant lived. Maybe if I could do that… but no, I wouldn't risk my life for her. Immune or not, I might die if I did it.

_You'll survive, trust me on this. You have to do it, everything is at stake here._ Gosh, that darned voice.

_A-are you sure?_

_Positive. Hurry, she only has seconds left._

I dove into the roiling mass of disease, and I felt Polo try to dive in to get me. He couldn't, for some strange reason. Not sure why not. I grabbed the center of the disease and sucked it into my body. Suddenly, I was in my own body. Not sick. Not dying. I was fine, and Max was stirring, starting to get up.

"I-is she all right?" Fang asked tentatively. I laughed, feeling adrenaline rip through me at my success.

"She's fine! I'm fine! Polo's fine! You're very fine!" I laughed. And with that, I kissed him, forgetting about Polo and Max.

We got Max back into her cage, but I was back in my cage beside her. Polo was in his room for the moment, and I had managed to slide my cage to Fang's, just enough space to kiss him, and to hold hands. I saw Max sit up, groaning.

"Wha' the 'ell?" she muttered, glancing around. She seemed to realize she was in a cage, and she jerked up, narrowly missing her head on the top of the cage.

"Hey Max, you sleepyhead. About time you got up," I said, smiling at her. She bared her teeth at me.

"Did you drag us here? Is this your fault?" she growled. My smile dropped.

"No, I didn't. I just saved your life, actually," I snapped back.

"Ohhh, right. So this _is_ your fault," she said, raising an eyebrow.

"Shut up! I just saved your effing live, you ungrateful little f---!" I said, lack of energy getting to me.

"Uh-huh. And Ari's back to life now, too, right?"

"Yea, actually, he is. He's at the School, where Jeb's de-eraserfying him. He's going to be little seven-year-old Ari again, but this time he's avian, like you."

"'Like you?' so what are you, not avian?" I clenched my teeth at that. I never told anyone about my origins, about how I was made from broken and outdated DNA. I'm the only living person who knew that I was, since the whitecoats who had known were long dead, from either being too kind, letting slip about the illegal experiments, or for other dumb reasons.

"Hello? Got brain failure? That probably happens to you a lot. Poor baby," Max crooned. I still didn't answer.

Three days passed, and I was at the end of my patience. Max still hadn't seen Polo yet, and she gave me weird looks whenever I said anything about him. She was taunting me at every opportunity, and she had caught Fang and me kissing again. Fang was being tortured more and more. I could see the angry cuts on his back and arms from the whip, and his hands were shaking most of the time. They tortured me, too, but not as much. Iggy was better, and Gazzy was almost better. All we had left was Nudge, who was getting better and better by the minute, and then we could escape. I wasn't exactly sure how, yet, but I was going to somehow.

"So who is… 'Polo,' anyways? Your imaginary friend?" Max sneered at me. I clenched and unclenched my hands as she continued.

_Control yourself,_ my voice whispered.

"We all know how lonely you are. No feathers, no flock, no life. Fang, what do you see in her? She's dumber than a rock, and just as dull and ugly." I was shaking now, struggling against myself.

_Careful!_ It warned.

"I hate you. You know that, right?" she said, speaking slowly and clearly, as if I was a two-year-old. My hands curled into claws. No, became claws.

_Sam! Don't! Get a hold of yourself! Snap out of it_ My voice said. I ignored it, welcoming the change.

Black scales erupted on my skin, as my anger erupted. My eyes turned pure red; my hair disappeared, while small red horns poked up over my skull. My nose became flat slits. My ears shriveled into my head, and long fangs sprouted from my mouth. My tong became forked and small. I was a demonic creature, a small dragon, and was out for Max's blood.

I let loose a high-pitched snarl and launched myself at Max's cage, melting the bars as I touched them. She cried out and flattened herself against the side of her cage. I felt her fear of snakes in the air, tasted it with my tong. I craved her fear, and I roared at her, saliva and fire licking at my lips. I felt Nudge's, Iggy's, Gazzy's, and Angel's fear for Max, and the succulent taste of fear in the air was delicious. I was high on other's fear, and I faintly heard the door burst open. A group of whitecoats ran into the room. They were destroying my feast of fear. One ripped open my door. Bad mistake. I was out in an instant, tearing flesh from his bones as he screamed in fear. I ignored the taste of blood. I hadn't ripped him for flesh food, but for the sweet taste of terror. I forgot about the other whitecoats, relishing the taste in the air, until I felt a needle jab into my wing, the only place where it could touch a vein without scales, and I was out like a light.

((there ya go! hope this is better than the first ending joke! ;) hehe…))


	20. Chapter 20

((yes, I know that the chapters are misnumbered. Sorry about that, but my laptop is screwing up. _Again._ WHY am I not getting very many reveiws?!? I was reading another fanfic that only had two chapters, and had some thirty reviews?? Plz, u guys, review.))

**Fang**

Holy. Crap.

I knew that Sam had an evil streak, but not enough for her to change into a demon and try to kill people. The whitecoats dragged her away, and her scales started to disappear. The horns along her scalp shrunk in, while her angel hair grew back out. Then they closed the door on her, as I did inside my head. Forever.

**Max**

Great. Now that Sam was out of the picture, I could grab the flock and get out of here. The whitecoats had been too busy with Sam to realize that my cage was busted, and I could get out. I started to slip out, and the door opened. I jerked back in, but froze. It wasn't a whitecoat. It was the angel from my hallucinations. His eyes seemed to brighten when he saw me, and he walked up to my cage and held out his hand.

"Generation Perfection. Otherwise known as Polotheus, further shortened to Polo. Nice to finally get to see you, Max." His voice was slow and calming, and he spoke with an angelic confidence. Fang? Love? What are you talking about? Now, Polo on the other hand…

_Max, you can't leave without Sam_. Jeb.

_Why not? All she's done is ruin our lives. And with that, Fang is definitely over her. We'll just leave, and Polo can take her place,_ I answered him confidently. He sighed, and retreated. I grabbed Polo's hand, feeling the warmth and strength in it. He smiled, and we started unlocking the other's cages.

"Okay guys, escape plan time. Step 1: we kick open the door and run. Step 2: we beat up anyone that we see. Angel removes their memory of seeing them. Everyone got that?" I said, resuming my rightful place as leader. But when I opened Fang's cage, his eyes seemed blank. It was scary. His eyes always seemed emotionless, but not blank, like they were dead. He climbed out of his cage without a word. I was worried about him, but I couldn't talk to him now. Wait for later, when we weren't on the road.

Step 1 didn't exactly do great. I snapped a kick at the door, but it didn't move. And my foot killed. So Iggy stepped up and did his thing, but that didn't work, either. So it was Gazzy's turn. FWOOOOMP!! (yes, I know, most people say 'boom' but bombs don't say boom, they sorta 'fwoosh', ya know?) We should have had a moment of silence for the door. We skedaddled out of there, and it was suprising that we didn't meet many people. Only two lone slithards, and five whitecoats. We beat the slithards quickly, but Fang was really starting to freak me out. He slaughtered the slithards mercilessly, his face blank and cold. His face was always blank, but not like this. Fang just snapped his neck quickly.

"That'll learn him," I joked nervously, then when Polo cringed, I realized that it was one of the things Sam always said. Yep, that's me, Max the silent and strong. We were so close to getting out. I could see the sunlight streaming in the window, when Iggy tensed.

"Someone's coming. Not human. It's… Sam?" he whispered, and my blood ran cold.

**Sam**

I woke up in my regular form, lying on a couch somewhere in the Home. There was nobody else in the room. I got up slowly, trying to remember what had just happened. Then it dawned on me that I had just changed, and most likely ruined all chances of the plan. I glanced around the room again, and saw a small monitor. There was a note on it that said, 'GO FOR IT' in little magazine cutouts. It was pretty funny that the 'G' and the 'I' were in curly pink. I peeked at the monitor, and it showed from a video camera's point of view. It was the flock plus Polo, escaping. I had to catch up to them, go with them.

I ran through the door, and when it smashed open from my kick, it hit a whitecoat in the face, knocking him out. I kept going, and I met quite a few people and slithards. I took them out quickly and silently, one by one. I knew that I must be near the flock whet I encountered a slithard with a broken neck. I walked silently around a corner and came face-to-face with Max.

"Hey Max," I said coolly, nodding slightly to her. Her only response was to clench her teeth and slip into a fighting position. I raised an eyebrow, and scanned the small group behind her. Angel had a look of cold resentment, which drove in the first knife. After I had sung her to sleep when she was sick, this is how it turns out? Nudge was looking upset but determined, and in goes the second knife. She was like my little sister. Iggy was looking solomn, there's the third knife, and Gazzy looked heartbroken. Four knives. Then my gaze passed on to Fang. His face was blank, almost dead. His eyes seemed gray and lifeless, and his skin seemed to be grayed also. That was past knives. It was a million freaking fracking dull, rusted nails, shoved in one by one. I didn't really care about Max, and Polo I knew was with them because of the plan and because he loved Max. No, he didn't tell me that, but you don't have to be a mind reader to realize it. He gave me a slight nod to show that even if I didn't get back into the flock, he would campaign for my return and try to keep the plan going.

_Sam, you can't fight your way into this. You have to talk your way back._ Alright, that worked.

"Why are you guys leaving without me?" I asked, letting an edge of hurt creep into my voice.

"Why do you think? You just tried to rip my throat out," Max snarled back. I feigned surprise.

"Huh what? When did this happen?" I asked, a puzzled look on my face. I saw Angel's face blank as she tried to enter my mind, and then saw frustration in her eyes. She still couldn't get in, for reasons even I don't know.

"Don't lie. You just turned into a… a dragon thing and tried to kill us all!" Max said, tensing and getting ready to attack.

"Wha? Hold on a sec, a dragon thing right?" I said, furrowing my brow and looking worried.

"Yea, that's what I just said, didn't I?"

"That wasn't me. I was in torture again," I said, pulling back my sleeve to show them bleeding cuts the scientists had done to me when I was in my dragon form, my _wyvern_ form, they called it. Max looked taken aback.  
"Then… who was it?" she said. I just shrugged.

"Beats me. A clone? I didn't know they made a clone of me ye-" I broke off as Iggy raised his hand.

"Slithards. Coming from our left," he whispered. Max nodded, and started to go forwards.

"Hey, wait! The exit is this way. That's the way to the shreddery," I said, pointing to where they had come from. Max gave me a dark look, but followed. She let me stay with them, but didn't accept me. She would never trust me, and I would never trust her. So, continuing on our trek, I led them through turn after turn, struggling not to go into hyperspeed and be out of there in seconds. And they thought they were fast? Psh, yea right. By the time we got to the right exit, I had a little swearword chant going on in my head, and was practically running. I knew the door was going to be locked, so I didn't even try the door handle. I kicked it open, then ran out into the open air, taking deep swallows of the fresh air. It had been almost a week since we first got captured, and winter was bearing down on us. The air seemed crisp, and the dead leaves and plants added a hint of death and decay to the smells. I realized Max hadn't seen my wings very well just before I snapped them out, and I heard her intake of breath.

"And you think Iggy is part bat?" I muttered, turning to them with my wings folded comfortably on the outside of my dark red shirt. It was then that I realized how scruffy looking they were, with ripped and bloodstained clothes, snarled hair, and deep rings under their eyes. I opened my mouth to talk about what next when I saw the army of slithards coming. There was about fifty of them, all changing as they ran.

"Time to go," Polo said, his eyes wide. We flicked out our wings and took off, flying as fast as we could. From the sound of it, the slithards were giving chase.

"Loose them in the trees!" I shouted, and dove towards the thick forest. My bat wings weren't as long as their feathered wings, and so I slowed down, baiting some ten slithards to follow me. Suddenly, I pulled a sharp U-turn and smashed one full in the face with my outstretched fists. I saw Fang ruthlessly pummeling a few, disabling them quickly and moving to his next victim. Iggy was dropping a small armload of explosives onto a pack of them, directed by Gazzy, and Polo and Angel were working together to make the slithards crash, holding hands, while Nudge defended their backs. Max was nowhere in sight, but I didn't have much time to look for her between attacks. It seemed like we were doing good at first, then we started to slow. I saw Max help Nudge with Polo and Angel, and got an idea. I would wait, though, until we desperately needed it. Max and I weren't on good terms, and I didn't want to lower the bar any more. Her trust was essential to my grand plan.

Finally, I convinced myself to do it. Iggy's wrist was bent oddly, and Nudge had a bloody nose. We all had scratches, and were very tired from lack of sleep, food, and being stuck in a cage. Folding my wings and plummeting a few feet below the fight, I reached down the secret pocket on the inside of my black pants and yanked it out. My favorite toy, my silver uzi. I swooped back up and killed about five slithards in two seconds, hearing delighted cheers from the flock. Polo followed my lead and pulled out his black automatic handgun and began firing. Within moments, the slithards were either dead, wounded, or fleeing. I let out a whoop of exhilaration, then replaced my uzi in it's secret pocket. I flew over to the flock, grinning widely.

"Why the hell did you do that?" Max practically shouted.

"Because hell was here, dingbat. I just saved your butt again," I said, raising an eyebrow. She let out a sort of groan/whine/yelp of frustration and flew off. I glanced at Fang, wondering if this was normal. He just gave me a small nod and a shrug.

We camped out in a nice, cozy little cave, and after an hour or two, Max came back. I ignored her and continued to cook my hotdog.

"Okay guys, we really need a hotel. I've got an untraceable credit card from Itex that's wired to have no limit, and my laptop that's a lot like Fang's," I said, realizing that I had taken it as I said it. The flock whooped with joy, and Nudge started bouncing up and down, talking nonstop.

"Oh yay! Max has a credit card like that, but I think it has a limit. I'm not sure, we haven't found out yet. We should go to a really nice hotel, and we could each have our own room, and we could go swimming, and Angel could breathe underwater! It could be a beachside resort! We could spend the whole day in the sand, and the-," she broke off as Iggy put a finger to her lips. She gave him a smile, and they walked to the back of the cave, talking almost normally. I remembered their kiss, and decided to let them have some alone time.

"We'll find one tomorrow. Let's get some z's," I said, lying down. We stacked fists and all went to our own dream places, but Fang, Max, Polo, and I stayed awake.

((sry it's such a sudden stop, but I g2g and this is way long. Don't forget to REVIEW!! I KNOW WHO YOU ARE, SLACKERS!!))


	21. Chapter 21

((I'm being risky, writing this at school, so u guys had better like it! Don't forget to R & R! That means _you_!! And I haven't put the disclaimer up for a while, so I will now: **Disclaimer:** I don't own Maximum Ride, as much as I'd like to. I also don't own MSN, either. I do own Polotheus, Sam, the slithards, and the plot, though.))

**Polo**

We laid back by the fire, just us four leaders. I couldn't sleep, so I got up and sat on the lip of the cave, my feet dangling over the canyon. You had to give Sam credit for finding this; it was perfect. Hanging over a rock face that nobody could climb up to, and nearly invisible in the side of the canyon, and there were tons of other caves lining the canyon, so people searching for us would have to search them, too.

I sat thinking about nothing for a long while, dreaming. Max came and sat beside me, swinging her feet in open air.

"So… I guess you exist after all," she joked.

"What?" I asked, confused.

"Long story…. I thought you were Sam's invisible friend," she laughed. I gave a small laugh, not really understanding what she meant. I didn't try to read her mind. I thought it would be intrusive of her personal thoughts. Plus, liking someone and knowing exactly what they're thinking at all times was a kind of curse.

"I-I don't really know you, and if we're going to be… traveling together, I'd like to know more. So, uhm, wanna play 10 questions?" I said hesitantly. She laughed again, and I realized how beautiful it sounded. Like pure joy, almost like bells ringing. Sam's laugh was a sort of purring trill, like how a tiger would laugh when it cornered it's prey.

"Sure, why not?" she said.

"Great, I'll ask first. How old are you?" I said.

"14. How old are you?"

"Same. What lab were you created in?"

"The School, in Colorado. You were the Home, where we just were, right?"

"Yup. What percent bird are you?"

"No clue. Ask a different one."

"Okay, uhh… what's your connection with Jeb?" I asked slowly, saying each word carefully.

"He's my dad. He's also a little voice in my head that talks to me a lot." I was surprised when she said that, and I must have shown it.

"What?" she said, giving me a weird look.

"Well… I didn't know that Jeb was your father and Ari was your brother, firstly. Secondly…" I paused. "I don't think I should be telling you the second reason." It was the fact that Sam had a voice in her head, too. It might just be Jeb, too… But I wasn't sure. Max gave me a long, steady look.

"Why not?" she asked, tilting her head flirtingly. I knew she was trying to charm me into saying something, but I was going to tell her that anyways.

"You can't tell anyone this, got it? I don't think anyone knows except for Sam, Fang, me. Sam has a voice in her head, too." Max looked startled, and hurt. I sensed that she really didn't like Fang keeping secrets from her.

"And that's two questions you owe me now," I added, trying to keep the atmosphere light and plesant. She grinned.

"All right, but tomorrow night. I've got to get some sleep," she muttered, rubbing her eyes and getting up. I was sort of sad that our moment was over, but suddenly she spun around, a wild look in her eyes. She dropped down to her knees and grabbed my head. We kissed tenderly and urgently, not wanting for it to end. But she pulled away and gave me her angelic smile, but had a somewhat bewildered look. I just smiled back, then got up to go to bed.

**Sam**

I pulled out my laptop when Max and Polo left and flipped open the lid.

"Not tired?" Fang asked, looking curiously at my laptop. I shook my head as I opened MSN, logging on as my classic 'redfeatherz66' account. I looked at my e-mails briefly, reading a few of my many e-mails. There was always tons of them, mostly of comments of my homepage. It was a lot like Fang's blog, which I realized he had logged onto and was typing furiously. Except mine had more pictures, of my wings, of the Home, and of some of the other mutants. I carefully and inconspicuously slid my laptop on my lap to angle the camera in the top of the lid, taking pictures of Iggy, Nudge, Angel, Gazzy, and Fang. I thought for a second, then quickly took a picture of Polo and Max, sitting side by side in the cave entrance with the sun in front of them, so they just looked like black shadows. A great kodac moment. I posted all of the pictures, labeling them briefly, including a short description of their wings, personalities, and powers. I typed a little description of what was going on, then I got bored. I logged onto my favorite chat site, as Kitten66. Entering the 'Animals (easy)' room, I started playing.

"So…" I said to Fang, after guessing 'aardvark'.

"So. What'cha doing on there?" he said, glancing at my computer screen.

"Gaming. How's Fang's Blog coming?" I said, shrugging.

"Pretty good. Getting about three thousand hits per day. How's redfeathers66 going?" he asked, suprising me.

"How did you…" I broke off curiously.

"I just looked up all of our names, and found your site," he answered, shrugging. I stared at him for a moment, then shook my head.

"You're too smart for your own good, Fang. I tell ya, it's a good thing we escaped from the Home. They mostly killed the ones who were smart and didn't cooperate. Knowledge is as good of a weapon as a gun," I said, rubbing my trusty uzi. He just shrugged again. Bored, I opened up my music maker program and pulled my earbuds out of my bag. I started making a sad song, letting the lyrics flow out of me. After a while, Max and Polo came back and laid down. I was surprised when he wrapped his arm around her waist, but not very surprised. I was starting to feel tired, so I put away my song and fell asleep, Fang watching over me. I woke for a moment when he got Iggy up for his watch, but other than that slept well. Until I heard a faint thud, like someone collapsing on the floor. I jolted up, as someone screamed, Nudge, and then I saw the person lying on the floor, a spot of blood on their wrist and a syringe in their hand.

**Iggy**

Fang woke me up for my watch at about one, and I waited until I was positive that everyone was asleep. I silently reached into my bag and pulled out a small bottle. I didn't know what it said, but some unbidden instinct told me that it was DNA. I had stolen it from the Home, and it was perfect. It was designed so that when it was injected, the DNA would join into the person's DNA. It was the gene that allowed bats to echolocate, I think. Carefully, I pulled out a syringe from my bag and stuck it in the bottle, pulling the plunger thing until it wouldn't go up anymore. I shook the bottle, making sure it was empty, then took a deep breath. _What are you doing?!?_ my rational part of my brain screamed at me. _You don't even know if it's really it or not!! Don't do this!!_ I shook my head, clearing the doubts from my mind. I couldn't see the label, so that was why I was doing this. So I would be able to. Without giving myself time to think anymore, I poked the needle into my wrist and pushed in the plunger thing. I felt it hit the plastic, empty, and yanked it out. Suddenly, my world got all tunnel-vision-ish. With the last of my receding energy, I crawled over to her and kissed her. Then the tunnel flashed white, and I faded into blackness.

((u ppl better like this- I wrote half of it at school the other day, and right now I'm typing with numb fingers from my XC practice. Goodness, it was effing cold! But I have harvest break now glee!! so I'll be posting more (hopefully, if mum doesn't overload me w/ chores :( blea) _**DON'T FORGET TO REVIEW!!**_))


	22. Chapter 22

((sry I havent' posted in a while!! Been pretty busy, I guess… and I got effing GROUNDED!! Grr… just read and review plz. I just started another RP, 'The Swarm'. Check it out, it's pretty good so far. And a little heads up on the last chapter of this- I messed up. Iggy is blind, so he doesn't get all 'tunnel-visiony. Let's just say he got dizzy and lightheaded. And when I said 'I crawled over to her and kissed her', I meant Nudge. Sorry, I was half asleep and had numb hands when I wrote that.))

**Fang**

I jumped up when I heard Nudge's scream, on my feet before my eyes were open. A confusing scene met my eyes. Nudge was sitting there, staring wide-eyed at Iggy, who was lying on the ground, a needle in one hand and the other hand bleeding slightly from a recent injection. Sam was already beside Iggy, and everyone else was starting to realize what had just happened. I shoved my way to Sam's side.

"What the hell just happened?" I said urgently, while she checked his pulse. She just shook her head wordlessly and shrugged. I grabbed the needle and inspected it, then stuck the end into the ground so nobody would step on it or something. Then I saw a small bottle, like the ones they fill the syringes with, slightly under Iggy. Yanking it out from under him, I read the label. It was covered in numbers and symbols, with no meaning. I growled in frustration.

"What do we do?" I fumed, staring helplessly at Iggy's limp body. I realized that Max and Polo had joined us, and Polo's eyes were out of focus, like they were when he was using his mind powers. Yes, I know about those, Angel told me. I glanced at Sam. She looked just as upset and flustered as I felt.

"I- I don't know! Why would he do this!?!" Sam stammered. "He's alive," she muttered, "but something's not right."

Just then, a loud cracking in the woods made us all jump.

"U and A. Fang and Polo with Iggy," Max whispered. We nodded, and they packed up in record time. Polo and I grabbed Iggy and laboriously took off.

We stopped in at a hotel, sneaking Iggy in so they wouldn't get suspicious. Sam rented a four-bedroom suite with her magic credit card, and each bedroom had two beds. We stayed the rest of the night, taking turns watching Iggy. Gazzy didn't sleep, and he kept waking people up, making sure that they weren't out like Iggy. Nudge was silently staring at him the floor the whole time, and Max wouldn't stop pacing. Polo and Angel were still trying to get something from his mind, and I was spending some time with Sam. My arm was around her shoulders, and her head was lying on my shoulder.

"I hope he'll be okay," she muttered. I nodded fervently.

"He will be. He _has_ to be," I whispered into her hair. We kissed for a moment, then we were interrupted by Max slamming the door open.

"He's awake," she gasped, then was running back into his room, Sam and me right on her heels. We came in and saw him rubbing his face. I dropped down beside him.

"What the he-eck were you thinking?!? What was that stuff?" I growled, hiding my fear and worry. He opened his mouth slightly, but nothing came out. He jumped slightly, then opened his mouth again.

"I- I injected bat DNA into my bloodstream. I think I just used echolocation," he gasped.

**Iggy**

When I woke up, I could tell from the smell that we were in a hotel. I heard Fang ask something about what I did. I opened my mouth to say something, but a extremely high-pitched screech came out, and suddenly, I could see the room! Not really 'see' see, but see an outline, like a pencil sketch of the room. There was my flock standing around me, and two others I assumed were Polo and Sam. Quickly, I told Fang what had just happened.

A week passed, and my echolocation skills got better and better. Sam managed to somehow find a house, and we were currently staying in it. It was amazingly nice, being able to stay in a permanent place and not have to worry about where we were staying, when our next meal was going to be, and all of that stuff. An added benefit was that we didn't see any slithards in the entire time. I almost wished that we would meet some, just so that I could see them.

One night, we all sat around our table, eating lasagna that Sam and I had cooked. She was okay at cooking. Not as bad as Max, and not as good as me. Polo could cook way better than I could, but he and Fang were upstairs, buying songs for their ipods and trying to get into Sam's computer. She changed her password once a week, and had everything in locked folder files, each with a different password. She also kept it in a special case with one padlock, a combination lock, and even a fingerprint scanner. They managed to get past those after a long while, but they were stuck on the layers of passwords.

Anyway, we were peacefully eating supper, chatting and laughing. But then Max stood up, and we all quieted, curious about what she was going to say.

"We're doing very well in this house. And now I'd like to try something newish. School," she said, grinning widely.


	23. Chapter 23, sorry, been a while

**((sooo sorry I haven't posted in so long! Just started two new stories, and have had everything going on. School, homework, been sick, grounded, guy trouble… lots of excuses. But I'm posting now, so yea… and check out my other stories if you like Eragon or Ari.))**

**Sam**

"Sam, you look upset. Are you upset? How could you be upset? We're going to school again, and I'm not upset! School is fun, there's lots of nice people, and it's pretty easy, and it's nothing to be upset about! Last time I went to school I made lots of friends and everyone did but then Gazzy and Iggy set off a stink bomb and we got in trouble but they couldn't prove it so we stayed but then they set off a real bomb in a secret basement and found a secret tunnel and then the principal freaked out at us and attacked Max in the teacher's lounge and some of them had needles and tasers and bad stuff like that. So we all ran out of there, it was really funny but I was sad that we had to go. Have you ever been to school? Last time Max had a date with some kid, and his name was Sam too! Fang also went out with this girl named Lissa, but Max freaked at him and then they left them and I now I don't know what happened to them. What do you think happened to them? Did they go out with each other or did they still miss Max and Fang or what? I-," Nudge broke off as I closed the bathroom door in her face. I wanted to roar with anger. Who did Max think she was, making us go to school?

Shaking my head, I brushed out my hair and washed my face. My hair was straight and sleek, like usual. I brushed my teeth really quick then ran downstairs. The flock was standing together, looking nervous and excited. I noticed that Fang, Iggy, Max, and Polo had slightly bemused expressions.

"Ready for school?" Fang asked me quietly when we were in the air. I huffed angrily.

"Yea, me neither. Last time I felt like such a total dork. We had to wear uniforms," he muttered. That made me laugh, imagining him in a neat shirt and pants. He was currently wearing a pair of dark girl jeans with a black studded belt. He had a dark look around his eyes, almost like he was wearing a slight hint of eyeliner. Just enough to give him that hot emo boy look, but not enough to look goth. You could only tell he was wearing it if you had raptor vision, like me. His hair was in a slight disarray, like he didn't care about it, but it looked amazing. A tight black t-shirt was on his torso, with hidden slits for his wings. Polo and Iggy had figured out how to make slits in shirts, then put special Velcro to keep it hidden. Our wings could still slip through them easily, though.

The school we were now going to was only about five miles away. Close enough to get there easily, but far enough away that people won't see our house. We were there quickly, and landed in the woods a few hundred meters away.

We walked inconspicuously to the school, mingling with the crowds of people. I felt like superman or something, trying to blend in with normal people, but all the time knowing that I have freaking wings. Max told us all to mix and stay normal. Yea, right. I have effing wings! I can turn invisible and move at speeds that are illegal on roads! I can control fire! Blending is not one of my Talents, guys.

So, when the bell rings and scares the bajeesum out of me, and I find the flock. Max did a quick count, then we headed off towards the office. The office turned out to be my personal heck.

The walls were pink with blue flowers. Pictures of happy fields and kittens were set here and there, organized like an OCD spaz. There wasn't a speck of dust anywhere, and shelves with assorted cute things were all around the room. A cozy little white desk with pink and blue flowers that matched the wall was set up by one wall, under a cute little fake chalkboard with sweet quotes on it, like 'smile and the world will smile back,' and 'teaching isn't a job, it's a passion.' The chairs were fluffy little pink things.

It was enough to make the most gothic, emo, suicidal, disturbed teen want to go snuggle with one of the kitten pictures.

The whole room scared the heck out of me. Gimme an army of demented snake-men all out to kill me any day, but this was real torture. Don't let the whitecoats find this, this was a totally new way to disturb and ruin children.

Sitting behind the desk in a frilly pink skirt and white lacy shirt was a short little lady. She looked not fat but plump, and had curly blonde hair that was perfectly arranged on her shoulders. She had way too much blush on, but other than that she didn't seem to have makeup on. Too-eager blue eyes stared out at us, and perfect white teeth were set in a smile under her pink lips.

I looked over at Fang, exchanging a horrified look. I had on a tight black t-shirt with 'Chiodos' in white on the front, the writing chipped and fashionably worn down. Dark tight jeans were low on my hips with a white belt and rips in the knees and around the pockets. Black and silver bracelets were dangling from my wrists, and shell choker necklace was tight around my neck. Fang and I both looked way out of place.

Of course, everyone looked out of place, but not as much. Max and Polo looked slightly bemused, Iggy and Gazzy looked disgusted, Nudge looked a bit bewildered, and Angel looked like she was going to laugh.

"Hello! You must be the missionary's kids! I'm Principal Gwinnia Lites, but everyone just calls me Gwinnia. **((A/N- its pronounced guh-win-ee-ah)) **It helps keep people friendly and happy. It's so great to meet you!" she squeaked, standing up and starting to shake our hands. She came to me and held her hand out. I gave her a blank stare that said 'I-have-no-soul-if-you-touch-me-I'll-steal-yours'. Her smile faltered for a second, then she brightened back up.

"Did somebody eat grouchy puffs for breakfast?" she said in a voice that someone would say to a toddler. She would be pinching my face next. My soulless stare intensified. She looked away, her smile drooping a bit. A quick glance at Fang made her decide to retreat back behind her desk.

"I have your schedules right here for you. Everything that you need is on there, so I hope that you won't have a hard time," Gwinnia said. _Translation: Please take your stuff and leave. I hope that you won't come back,_ I thought.

Fang and I simultaneously grabbed our papers and were out before she could blink. He groaned.

"Great. I almost prefer Pruitt to this freak," he growled.

"God, that place is horrible. She's found a new way to keep troublemakers from going there. I bet Gazzy and Iggy will be more careful. If the rest of this hellhole is the same as that cesspit, then I'm leaving and nobody's stopping me," I snarled, shuddering at the office.

We compared schedules for a moment while the rest of the flock branched out to their classrooms. We had almost all of our classes together except for two. First period and the fifth, right after lunch.

We kissed for a moment, then he started off towards his first class, leaving the feel of his lips lingering and the smell of his clothes in my nose.

Sighing, I headed towards first period. It was in room 212, biology with Mrs. Cote. I walked it to see her busily putting people into seating plans.

"Oh, hello. You must be… Sam? Part of the new… family, right?" she asked. We had told the school that we were missionary's kids, except we were all adopted and unrelated. Then the teacher's wouldn't ask too many questions if they caught any of us kissing. That would not be good.

"Yeah," I said in a bored tone. She smiled bravely at me.

After the long and boring process of putting us in our assigned seats, I ended up between a guy that was kind of cute in a puppy-ish way and a very normal looking girl with brown, curly hair, a slightly ruddy complexion, and a slight sarcastic expression. I could tell that the guy was going to be trouble from his staring, but the girl seemed nice.

"Hey. I'm Emily. New?" she said, lifting one side of her mouth in a kind of sarcastic smile/smirk. I just nodded and pulled out my assignment book. Yes, we had gone school shopping. It was kind of boring and frustrating, trying to convince Nudge to just hurry up and pick out a binder and book cover and notebook and pencil pouch and _everything_.

The blonde guy suddenly glanced down at my chest, or rather lack of chest, and smirked. He leaned over and muttered something to the guy in front of him, who looked at me in a way that made my face almost blush. Snickering, the two guys proceeded to rudely whisper in a tone that they probably thought was too quiet for me to hear. I probably wouldn't have heard them if I wasn't, oh, say a mutant freak that's everything they could only dream of becoming with uber cool powers and wings and strong senses.

"Holy god, she's got no chest!" blondie said.

"Yea, I know! She's got the looks and everything else, though," brown said.

"But I need those! I can't have a girl without them!"

"Psh, speak for yourself. I'll have to make due."

"You'll have to have a second girl to stay happy. One for looks, the other for a chest!" blondie snickered.

I wanted to either A) turn invisible and fly out of there or B) make their eyes melt for abusing them.

I spent the rest of the class idly chatting about nothing with Emily, and doing my best to ignore the two guys. Mrs. Cote gave us the whole speech about expectations and stuff.

As soon as class was over, I bolted out of there, struggling to go human speeds and not 300 miles per hour. I whispered the whole event to Fang, who's face reddened and his fists clenched.

"Those a--holes. We'll have a little chat after class," he growled quietly. I laughed, then we walked into our next class. History.

It would have been a really boring class if our teacher, Mr. White, hadn't let us sit anywhere we wanted, and Fang was whispering in my ear the whole time. I swear my lungs popped from trying not to laugh. Some of the stuff he said was PG-13, so I won't say for those of you with virgin ears.

Math passed quickly. It was extremely easy, and it wasn't a bad class. Mrs. Pekk seemed really smart and nice. She told us that we were going to kick the year off with angles. When we all groaned, she told us that we were going to make catapults and see what angles worked the best for launching. The groaning switched to cheering. We picked groups. I was with Fang, Max, and Polo.

Lunch was next. We met up with the rest of the flock in a light mood. But as soon as we saw the lunch proportions, the whole room seemed to darken. Some people were talking about how big their lunches were, but I gaped at the tiny amounts. We all bought two lunches, but even then we all finished them easily.

The rest of the day passed in a blur. English, boring. Health, confusing. The teacher was telling us about the body systems. Digestive, cardio, respiratory, that whole thing. But she kept saying 'our organs'. Yeah, speak for yourself, lady. Fang, Polo, and I sniggered through the whole class while Ms. Linna struggled to find out what was so funny. She started talking about our lungs and hearts, and the blonde kid from Biology started bragging about how his heart rate was so low and healthy. I lost it and cracked up then. Ms. Linna decided to take my pulse to prove that his heart rate was so good. I stopped laughing quickly, exchanging nervous glances with Fang and Polo. _Shitshitshit!_ I thought inside my head. No human could have a heart rate like mine. It was only some 69 beats per minute.

Her hand felt wicked cold on my wrist, and I winced.

"Sorry, my hands are cold," she muttered, glancing at her watch. I could stand the cold, but not all of the memories that her fingers on my wrist were bringing back. Horrifying scenes flashed behind my eyes.

_A black haired lady stuck her fingers on my wrist, checking my pulse as another whitecoat pressed white-hot fire pokers against my back._

_A whitecoat pretending to check my pulse, then popping my arm out of the socket and sticking a needle in the gap between my arm and shoulder, laughing at my screams._

_Slithards slashing my back to ribbons as a old whitecoat checked my pulse, nodding pleasantly._

I shook my head, clearing all of this from my thoughts. Ms. Linna was looking at me with a curious expression. She opened her mouth to say something when I saw Polo touch her arm. She turned to him.

"She has a very normal heart rate," he muttered just loud enough for her to hear.

"You have a very normal heart rate," she said to me, her eyes slightly unfocused.

"Let's talk about the lymphatic system now," Polo whispered.

"Now we're going to talk about the lymphatic system," Ms. Linna said to the class, starting up towards the board. Polo gave me a wink while Fang gave me a worried look. I realized that my hand was shaking inside his.

Last class was gym. Max and I headed off towards the girl's locker rooms. No, we're not great buds, but we don't try to kill each other anymore. Well, I hadn't turned into a slithard again and tried to rip her throat out or feasted on fear. I tried not to think about that incident. What scared me most about it was that I had actually enjoyed it. Seriously though, if you could turn into a super powered snake being at will, could scare the heck out of people, and ate fear that tasted like all of the best things in the world times a trillion, then you'd like it, too. The taste was so great, like liquid white chocolate with strawberries dipped into it, but better. The chocolate was the fear scent, sweet but not too sweet, and the strawberry was the actual taste in my mouth. Just ripe, juicy, a hint of tartness… amazing. It was like a drug. Once I had a second of it, then I wanted more. Having it made cruel reality go away, and everything I wanted at my fingertips. I could do whatever I wanted. If I wanted to sleep in a mansion, then I would! If I decided that it was too cold, I would make the air hotter! If I thought a man deserved a good strangling, then that was fine also! I felt like the world was wrapped around my claws, bending to my every desire.

But my point is, as much as I wanted to, I didn't attack Max like that again.

Anywho, back to gym class. I changed quickly, using my invisibility Talent to make my wings disappear. Poor Max had to change in the showers, saying she was uncomfortable with changing around others. Some of the girls gawked at my pecks, but I just gave them dagger glares. They looked away and got really interested in their hair.

We played soccer for gym. All of the girls were standing in little flocks chittering about how they were getting all sweaty and their hair was getting tangled. God forbid the ball came towards them.

The guys were doing pretty well. Max and I were on the same team. Some of the guys refused to pass to us at first, probably cause we're girls, but once we stole the ball a few times they would always pass to us. We'd smash the ball at the goalie, and after getting hit only twice he just cowered in the corner.

We won 13 to 2. How's that for humans being the dominant species. We changed back quickly, chatting with a few of the nicer girls.

"Damn, that was good! Have you guys ever thought of trying out for the soccer team?" Emily asked, yanking on a white belt.

"No. This is actually my first time playing soccer. I know how, but I've never done it. When are tryouts?" I asked casually, hoping that it wasn't weird that I had never played. Max shot me a warning look.

"Seriously? You've never played?!? Did you grow up in a cage or something?" she joked. I laughed nervously. "Tryouts are tomorrow, right after school. I'm so trying out. I was co-captain last year," she continued.

We talked about techniques and stuff for a minute, then Max and I broke off to meet up with the flock. Fang was beside me with his arm around my waist in a moment.

"How was gym?" he asked quietly. I told him about soccer, and about my idea to join the soccer team. He was halfway through telling me about his Biology class when I felt a familiar prickling sensation. Fang noticed me stiffen and did a 360 in the air. A dark cloud rose up from the trees, like a huge swarm of giant demon birds. They were too close for all but Max and me to outrun them.

"Guys! Slithards behind! About 30! Get ready!" he called out. We spread out a bit, grimly waiting for them to attack us.

**((alright, hope you like it! It's kinda long, four pages, so you'd better like it! Also plz look at my other stories, and REVIEW!! Can you spare a second to push that wonderful button and type me up something? Even a hello is nice, and constructive criticism is welcomed. But no badmouthing and dissing plz.))**


	24. Chapter 24

**((here I am!! Didja miss me? lol, here's the new chappie. It's dedicated to **TheFlock,** my guild!! Hope ya like it!))**

Sam

I did a bit of lightning quick calculations about the slithard swarm. There wasn't too many for us to handle, but it looked like it was going to be close. As soon as they got within striking distance, I started attacking. A foot snapped one's spine, a fist breaking a face, a spout of fire melting and drowning one at the same time.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Fang with large ice spikes protruding from his fists, fingers, and feet, sticking out and appearing whenever one broke or he struck with a different body part. Max seemed to be dancing with two of them, darting around them like an insane hornet. Nudge and Iggy were back-to, moving almost at the same time with the same moves. Gazzy was guarding Angel while she did her mind-control thing, and Polo seemed to be adding his power to hers.

We continued like this for about a minute, before disaster struck. All it took was for Gazzy to make one wrong move, his foot missing a slithard by a hair, and suddenly two overwhelmed him. Max and I dove down towards him at the same time, and our wingtips hit, sending us careening into a thick group of slithards. We started to fight them valiantly until one of them decided to use the taser he had been saving.

The small glowing line hit Max in the back of her neck, making her scream. I don't know how she did it, but she managed to keep her wings going. The slithard sneered, and turned his weapon on me, leaving Max to struggle against the three slithards mobbing her. I saw the blue light right before it hit me. Right in between the eyes.

Electricity coursed through my veins, turning my fire Talent against me. I let loose a horrible shrieking sound, like metal being cut slowly. My wings missed a beat, faltering, but I remained in the air. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the entire flock plus Polo descend upon the slithards that were attacking Max and I like a hoard of avenging angels or something. Fang went straight for the slithard with the taser, smashing his foot down on his hand. I stopped screaming and gasped, my eyes shuddering closed. The last thing I saw was Gazzy getting a hard cuff on the head, and slithards envelop him, unknown to everyone else.

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I blearily opened my eyes, feeling drifty. Instead of everything feeling heavy, it felt unusually light. I glanced down at myself, and saw-

Fang

We defeated the slithards when Max and Sam got attacked. Some sort of madness seemed to envelop us, and we were everywhere at once. The slithards seemed slow compared to the insane hyperdrive we had slipped into, fighting with our lives for our leaders.

Once they were gone, we looked for Max and Sam, who had fallen out of the air. We found them in a tree top, passed out. Good thing they weren't too high up when they fell. It was odd, but they looked kind of misty. Their features seemed blurred, but everything else was crystal clear with my raptor vision. Strange.

Polo and I picked them up without a word. Sam seemed really light. Still strange. We carried them back to our house, exchanging short, curt words. I put Sam down on her bed, which was black silk. The walls were black and white diagonally striped, giving it a vertigo look. The desk was white with black polka-dots, and a bookshelf was black wood with white spray paint. Her door was a white rectangle with a black rectangle inside, then white, then black, and so on. The carpet and ceiling matched the walls, the lines flowing into each other. I gently stroked her hair, and I noticed after a few minutes that she seemed to be getting more clear, and not so blurry. It was such a slow change that I hardly noticed it. I looked curiously at her, and then heard a shout. Jumping up, I ran towards the sound. Iggy was standing in the middle of the living room, looking frozen and shocked.

"Gazzy's gone."

Sam

Smoke. I was smoke, just hovering in a shapeless mess in the air above my bed. _No worries, I must just be dreaming or hallucinating,_ I told myself. It didn't help.

_No, you're not_. Shit. Now, to top it all off, the voice had to join in.

_What do you mean?_ I demanded.

_The electricity from the taser caused your powers to meld. They are gone, and the reaction caused your molecular structure to drift apart. This is your new Talent, as you call them._

I floated silently, dumbfounded.

_Ha ha. Is this a test?_

_Kind of, but this talent is here for keeps. Hope you like it,_ the Voice said cheerfully. I just glowered.

_Fun. How do I get rid of it?_

_You can't. I said it's here for keeps._

_Suure. Well, if you won't tell me that, than at least tell me how to turn back to normal,_ I growled, spinning in a tiny tornado, frustrated. I could here shouts from downstairs. Something about Gazzy. It sounded like it was Iggy, Fang, and Polo. I also could hear inaudible whispering from the room beside mine. Nudge's room. It was probably her and Angel. Then I realized that I didn't hear Max. She had gotten shocked too. What was going on??

_Umm…_ the Voice hesitated.

_Oh, shiit. I can get back, right? I'm not stuck like this, am I? _I asked quickly, starting to panic.

_No, you can turn back. Just… concentrate on your body. Picture the smoke thickening, turning back into you._

_Right. Right, I can do this,_ I said, slightly hysteric. I imagined myself hardening, becoming solid again. To my surprise, it worked. I could feel fingers, toes, ears, mouth… I looked down at myself, relishing the feeling of having a neck, and sighed in relief. I was looking normal again, dressed in the same clothes I had on earlier. Just my feet left to solidify… They formed quickly, and I tumbled out of the air, bashing my head on my desk. Ow, that wasn't smart.

I relished the feeling of being back in my room, with it's striped walls, and everything black and white and silky. The whole room had a sort of unsteadiness to it, since all the walls were the same as the ceiling and floor. I wanted to stay and curl up in the silk sheets, but I had to know what was going on downstairs. Throwing open the door, I started to go down, Max coming out of her room and following me closely. Her room was all green and gold and blue, making it look kind of underwater-ish. I just nodded curtly to her and continued my race down the steps, taking them three at a time. I wanted to turn into smoke, but I decided to keep it a secret for now. From everyone, including Fang. Sorry, Fang, love ya, but I can only totally trust one person here; moi.

I got to the bottom of the steps and started into the living room. I went past Iggy, who's eyes looked red and puffy. He was storming out, fists clenched. I stepped aside and let him pass, then walked up to Fang and Polo, Max right behind.

"What's going on?" I asked shortly. Fang opened his mouth to undoubtedly blurt out a bunch of junk about me just waking up so I should stay rested, but Polo cut him off.

"Gazzy's gone. The slithards took him when we attacked the group with you and Max. We think they took him to the Home," he said grimly. I kept my face carefully impassive, but Max swore loudly.

"This is your fault!! The slithards have never tracked us yet, it's because of you!" she shouted angrily at me. I just huffed.

"Psh, sure. They were going to start coming after you soon enough, you should be glad I gave you guys a heads up," I retorted.

"You're the one who screamed like that and got everyone's attention. If you hadn't then we would be at the Home instead of them!" she hissed. I laughed.

"Yea, and that would do a ton of good. We wouldn't have any problems then," I said, sarcastically happy. "Why don't you just go in and ask if they'll take us instead? 'Hello, psycho whitecoats, can you please give us Gazzy and put Sam and I in cages instead?'" I mimicked, laughing coldly. She snarled and pushed me. I stepped back a half-step, then shoved her back.

"Don't touch me," I growled. It was her turn to laugh.

" 'Don't touch me!'" she said in a fake high-pitched voice. "_You_ don't touch _me,_ you abomination," she spat. I shoved her again, smiling. Fang and Polo started to say something, but stopped, exchanging uneasy glances.

"Abomination," she hissed again. I felt a familiar roaring sensation in my blood.

Scales broke out across my skin, inky black and hot. My eyes seemed to bleed, turning red. Tiny horns poked up along my scalp, and my hair sucked into my head. Fangs curled over my lower lip, and I let out a horrible shrieking/snarling sound right in Max's face. Except it wasn't Max anymore.

Fur had sprung out of her skin, and ragged claws sprouted from her fingers. Long canines, but not as long as mine, popped out of her gums. She roared right back.

Eraser and slithard eyed each other, preparing for attack.

**((lol, sorry it's short, and a horrible cliffie! Hopefully, I'll post more now, but only about twice a week max. the longest I'll go will be two weeks w/ out posting, but hopefully not. Check up on this again soon, and thanks to all of my flock members out there!!))**


	25. The End of Forever

**((alright, I don't want you guys to get too rowdy, so I'm posting quickly. Hope you like it, this one's for Nudge! O, and this one gets a little vulgar. Alright, a **_**lot**_** vulgar. It's to emphasize the high emotions running right now. Poor Fang. But I'm feeling kinda emo-ish now, no clue why.**

**And just a shout out- I want a poll- who do you like better, Max or Sam? Don't be afraid so say why or anything. I'm open to all suggestions/thoughts/ideas!))**

Sam

I slowly moved right, watching eraser Max move slowly with me, her eyes never leaving mine. Just then, Polo and Fang jumped in the way, spreading their wings to make a wall of flesh between us. No matter. Max whipped out her wings, and I did the same. For the first time, we met in the air.

Wings beating hard to keep us in the air, we struggled to get on top. Fang was shouting, and Polo had run off for someone, probably Angel to help him control us. As one, Max and I smashed through a window, alighting on the roof. It was chilly out, but not icy cold. Perfect for fighting. Max tested her footing slightly, then nodded, apparently pleased.

With an unspoken command, we attacked again, rolling and slashing. I was in battle mode, not scare mode, so I wasn't feeding off fear this time.

I slashed at her muzzle, but she pulled back like a pro and did a spinning kick toward me, only to land on air where I had been earlier. She had the strength, but I had the experience of fighting in my form before.

Suddenly, as I struck with my whip-like tail, she wasn't there anymore. It cut through a cloud of smoke. Thinking fast, I converted to yet another form, becoming smoke. We rolled through the air, pulling and yanking on each other.

I saw the flock standing below us, gaping at our shadowy figures. We looked like small storm clouds, Max slightly lighter than me. To complete the whole scene, there was even bright yellow static crackling between us occasionally.

We fought for what must have been an hour, slipping through each of our three forms quickly. Snake fighting smoke, wolf fighting human, human fighting smoke, wolf fighting snake, smoke fighting smoke. The only blows that had landed were maybe two broken ribs on me and Max definitely had fractured her collarbone. There had been a few scratched and bruises, but those were the only major ones.

Max had hit me with a quick fake and a punch when I was switching forms, and I had landed mine with a nice textbook style kick and a feint mix. We didn't talk other than the occasional huff of breath leaving someone, a cry when an injury was hit again, and a bit of insults thrown in.

"Abomination," she snarled.

"Hero," I hissed back.

The flock was now on the roof, shouting at us to stop. Angel and Polo were holding hands, eyes closed, looks of concentration on their faces. Fang was firing ice at us, trying to freeze us, but we were out of range.

Nudge was explaining to Iggy what was happening, and there was a look of grief on his face. I supposed that his echolocation wasn't working very well on us, since half the time we were smoke and the other half we were moving too fast for his clicks.

I rolled out of the way of a kick, aiming my wingtip for her face, but she grabbed it. I spun with it, wrapping my wing around her arm, but she became smoke and drifted out of my grip. I shifted to smoke, too, and launched myself at her, but she pulled out of the way and-

_Sam, stop this shit right now,_ the voice bellowed. I froze in surprise. Max stopped also.

_I'm a little busy right now, Voice,_ I murmured back, attacking Max again. She returned the blows, but we weren't being as vigorous as before.

_I'm ordering you to stop!_ it shouted. I just ignored it._ Punch, dodge, drop, shift, kick, shift…_

_I'm begging you to stop,_ it tried. I continued my silent treatment, attacking with renewed rage.

Fang

I. Was. _Furious._

I wanted to fly up there and kick Sam's ass for playing me like this. I hated it when people lied to me or made a fool of me, and here she was, fucking around with my brain. The only thing that stopped me from handing her butt to her on a platter was that a) Max was in the way and b) she had three amazing forms. As much as I hate to admit it, she even looked hot with scales. Hot in a damned way, a hellish way.

Sorry Angel, if you're listening to this.

They were spinning around in the air. I was throwing all I had at them, but nada. Those bitches sure could fight.

They slowed down for a moment. I glanced questioningly at Polo and Angel. Angel just shook her head, curls bouncing.

"It's the Voice. It's trying to get Max to stop, and I think it's doing the same with Sam, but we can't see her mind," she explained quietly. I nodded, in awe of how she could still seem so cute even with such a wreck going on.

What a fun party. Watching as my leader, pretty much my sister fought against the girl I loved with every fiber of my being. I loved them both, and here I was, watching them wage war alone. Angel was with Polo, pretty much looking like a brother/sister Kodak moment, and Iggy was with Nudge, looking like an ideal couple. And then there was me, standing alone on a fucking roof watching the two bitches I loved most try to kick each other's asses. Gazzy wasn't here because he had been kidnapped by scientists with questionable mentalities so that they could do sick and twisted experiments on him.

Like I said, it was a grand party.

Sam

_Sam, you need to stop this. It's ruining the plan, even though it's working out fine. Think about Fang._

Fang. Oh shit, forgot about him.

_Yea you did. He's not very happy, to put it bluntly. _I was too busy to reply for a moment, fighting. I got in a nice kick when I went smoke, got behind her, then went slithard and managed to clip her shoulder a bit, but she spun with it, whacking me with her wingtips as she rolled through the air, in her 'human' form for more agility. I ducked out of the way, and then we were back to the shape changing whirlwind.

_Great. So how do you purpose I fix this?_

_No clue. You got yourself into this mess, you get yourself out._

That sent me thinking. I had an idea of what to do, but there were no guarantees. _Do it for Fang,_ I told myself, getting ready.

I saw her fist come at my face in a desperate attempt, and it would have been all too easy to dodge. But I didn't, letting it connect. I tasted blood and anger at myself for doing this.

She landed another punch, and I started to fall. We fell in slow motion, me fighting feebly. _FangFangFangFang,_ I thought weakly as I allowed another blow to strike me.

I managed to shift to smoke just before landing on the ground, then shifted back again so that I wouldn't break on impact.

Max allowed me to stagger to my feet, her eyes cold and flinty. God, she looked so much like me at the moment, cold and cruel. Just add a bit of red to her hair, a splash more yellow to her brown eyes to make them the hazelish dirty-yellow mine were, and we'd be twins.

"Leave," she growled, snapping her teeth, still looking like canines from her eraser form. I gave her a last look, stuffing as much hate into it, then turned away toward the woods. I heard the pattering of feet, and Polo ran up to me, his eyes carefully blank. I knew that he would stick with Max. I stared at him for a moment, and I thought I saw his eyes soften for a moment.

Then they hardened again, and he handed me my bag without a word. My laptop was in it, along with most of my most treasured possessions, my iPod, and some necessities. I took it from him, lowering my gaze. I couldn't stand to see the hurt in his eyes.

I glanced at the roof, where both Iggy and Nudge were staring at me with icy acceptance. I was just another enemy, the newest version of Jeb, or Ari. It was apparently my fault that Gazzy was gone.

I could hardly look at Fang. His eyes were blanker than normal, looking dull and lifeless. He had acknowledged that I was evil, no longer part of his life other than yet another obstacle to survive. I wasn't sure how much of him he had left behind, and I probably would never find out. _Oh Fang, FangFangFangFang, please forgive me for this. I love you more than you know, and I'm doing this for you. It's either this or tear you in half,_ I thought, trying to tell him this without words. But he just continued his deadened stare.

_**Flashback**_

_**Fang and I sat quietly in a corner of my room on the floor. He kissed me passionately, and I wrapped my arms around him, wishing there was a way I could pour out exactly how much I was in love to him. Words couldn't describe the intensity of our desire, our craving for each other. Locked in love with body, mind, and spirit, we were forever entwined in each other, never to leave.**_

"_**Forever?" I murmured, my lips brushing his.**_

"_**Forever," he answered, nuzzling my neck. We embraced, not just teen lovers but honest soulmates. We had each other's spirit and soul, and death upon us if we should ever part.**_

_**End Flashback**_

I turned my back on everything. I was no longer Sam. Fang had Sam, and I didn't want him to let go of her. I had thought we were forever.

As I gaze upon the endless trees, I wonder why we had such complicated lives. Where's my happy ending? I had none. Fang wasn't a part of my existence anymore, so it ends.

I trudge away from the only thing I had that came near to happiness. Goodbye Fang, take care of Sam.

Forever had ended.

**((surprised? Here's big news- THAT WAS THE LAST CHAPTER!!! I'll probably make a sequel to it. No clue what I'll call it… just keep an eye out for it, though it probably won't be for a while. Holidays, ya know… And sorry this was so short, but it's the way I wanted it. Yes, Polo stayed with the flock. Gazzy might be back in the next story. Dunno. Please review, give me any ideas/thoughts. Don't forget about the poll at the top, put a reply in a review. I will be furious if I get a review with no reply to that poll in it. I'll Send ya… mwa ha ha ha!!! –crocodile smiles, then walks away-))**

-Sam-


	26. SEQUEL

_**SEQUEL!!!!**_

**Sam, Fang, Max, Polo, and the flock are back! But what has happened in the month since Sam left? Nothing good. Read the sequel to **_**The Disease**_** and watch their lives unravel, then read as they slowly rebuild their happiness. Remember, all is not as it seems…**

Remember Me When I'm Gone, **the next part of my series! You can find it in the Maximum Ride book sections, or in my profile at the very bottom, along with my other stories. Hope you like it!**

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